2024 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Review

It's the first Saturday of 2025, and I haven't yet figured out a plan for my 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. Before I worry about that, I'm going to look back at my projects for the RSC in 2024. It was my 12th year of participating in the RSC, and I have to start off by thanking Angela for continuing to host the challenge every year. I am also grateful for the encouragement and inspiration every week from the other quilters who participate in the RSC.

My RSC projects for 2024 included new projects plus a couple that carried over from previous years. That combination of new and old will also continue into 2025. For this wrap-up post, I'm going to start with the projects that were new in 2024, then work back through the older ones.

In looking back at my records from last year, I was somewhat surprised to discover that I started three new RSC projects in the very first week of the year. The first was the Birthday Quilt 2024 from Laundry Basket Quilts, a block-of-the-week series of patterns. I made my blocks using the RSC colors and alternating between light and dark backgrounds. After eight months, I decided to stop making more blocks, framed all the ones that were already made, and joined them together into a small quilt top in October.

LBQ Birthday Blocks

40" x 56"

Another sampler quilt was also started that first week of 2024. This one was the Hen & Chicks sampler, designed by our RSC hostess Angela. Each month I made four 6" blocks and four matching 3" blocks. You can see how Angela joined her blocks in this post. I decided to go with a different type of setting, and got all my blocks joined together into a top before the end of the year. 

RSC 2024 Hen & Chicks Sampler

41.5" x 55.5"

The third new project that was started in the first week of the year was Hollow 9-Patch. I used 2.5" squares to make 6" blocks in the RSC color each month. These were great to have as a leader/ender project. I ended up with about 80 blocks by November, and I have been working on getting them joined together. The blocks and sashing on the left half are stitched together, and the rest are joined into columns.

The last new RSC project for 2024 was started in February. That was the "Terry" blocks, inspired by Terry Rowland's colorwash quilts, featured in her series of three YouTube videos. These scrappy little blocks will finish at 3". I have approximately 400 blocks made, and I need to go back and make some in colors I missed, plus add more to a few of the other colors. Here are all of the pink blocks from last May.

One of my 2024 RSC projects was a carry over from 2023. I had been making Rail Fence blocks all that year, and by the end of the year I had two quilt tops (see them in this post), plus an assortment of leftover blocks. I discovered that joining four blocks together made a pinwheel-type design. That led to making many more rail fence blocks, and by the end of the year I had one quilt top and one finished baby quilt.

Rail Fence Spinners #1, quilt top

42.5" x 54.5"

Rail Fence Spinners baby quilt

39.5" x 48"

I have one quilt top from 2024 that features our color of the month from July, which was the aqua/turquoise/teal family. I was inspired by a herringbone design from a Kleenex box, and used that inspiration plus a stack of blue-green fabric scraps to make a little baby quilt. I am hoping to revisit the herringbone design this year.

Herringbone quilt top, 33" x 39.5"

One RSC project from 2023 was finished in 2024. I had taken a class in June, 2023, A Maze Zing with Candace Hassen. The original pattern produced blocks that finish at 16" x 24", but I scaled mine down a bit to 13.5" x 19.5". I made blocks using the RSC colors for several months in 2023, then finished them all off as placemats toward the end of 2024.

A Maze Zing blocks (before quilting)

My plans for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2025 are still undecided, although I am determined to finish some of the many rainbow quilt tops hanging in the closet. It feels good to see that most of my 2024 RSC projects are either finished tops or very close to that point. I'll finish up the Hollow 9-Patches soon, and get back to the Terry blocks at some point. I look forward to another year of colorful, scrappy adventures!

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday, and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 11/24/2024

Last week's marathon of finishing placemats before our guild meeting on Thursday is finally over! I ended up with a total of 35 placemats to turn in, which will all be donated to Meals on Wheels. This is what they looked like all stacked up together.

I wish I had included a ruler in that photo to measure the height of the stack of placemats. I would guess it was probably about 3" high. Here they are all spread out in groups on my sewing machine table.

The pile at the lower left were the easiest to make, done quilt-as-you-go style. The sets at the lower right were all made from orphan blocks, Dresden Stars on top and tiny bowties underneath. You can see all of those placemats in earlier posts here, here and here.

The placemats at the top of that photo are the ones I was finishing this week. They were started in a class I took in June, 2023 with Candace Hassen. Our class with Candace was her A Maze Zing pattern. There were two versions, one with a single giant block and the other with multiple smaller blocks. The version with smaller blocks is called Hoopla, but the piecing method is the same. I made the smaller blocks, with the idea from the very beginning that they would work well as placemats. All of the placemat tops were pieced in 2023 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and the yardage used this week was for all the backings, 3.5 yards total.

No new fabric was added to the stash last week.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                    3.50 yards

Used year to date:             127.75 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           104.75 yards

Net used in 2024:              23.0 yards

Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces has us tracking how many days each week we get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. The placemat marathon is over for now, and I've been struggling to figure out what to work on next. Of course I should concentrate on cleaning up before I do anything else!  I managed to get my 15 minutes every day this week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

11/17 - 11/23            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          323 of 328 days

Success rate               98.47 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups. I'm also linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Wrap-Up for 2023

The last Saturday of 2023 means that it is time to look back at my different projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This was my 11th year of participating in the RSC, and I am so grateful for the encouragement and inspiration every week from the other quilters. Thanks so much to Angela at soscrappy for continuing to host our link-ups. 

My RSC projects for 2023 were a mix of new projects plus a few that carried over from previous years. That combination of new and old will also continue into 2024. For this wrap-up post, I'm going to start with the projects that were new this year, then work back through the older ones.

16-Patch Stars was the first project to be shared in 2023. I made two blocks each month, then in October all twenty blocks were joined together into this bright and cheery quilt top.

16-Patch Stars, 48.5" x 60.5"

Jabberwocky was another of my new RSC projects for 2023. It is a Judy Martin pattern from The Block Book. I believe the book is out of print, but available at a variety of on-line sources. I made three blocks each month, ending up with a total of 28 (I must have made one extra at some point.) Here are some of the blocks as I was auditioning sashing/border fabrics. I hope to get them assembled into a quilt top in January.

Jabberwocky blocks

Another new project for 2023 was the 2023 Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter. Each month we used the RSC color of the month along with assigned letters for inspiration to make something from our scraps. I focused on making placemats, most of them from strips and strings, but some from orphan blocks and leftover pieced units. the placemats are being donated to Meals on Wheels through our quilt guild.

Table Scraps Challenge placemats

My last new RSC project for the year started in a class I took in June, A Maze Zing with Candace Hassan. The original pattern produced blocks that finish at 16" x 24", but I scaled mine down a bit to 13.5" x 19.5". I'm planning to turn these into placemats eventually, plus I will continue making more of them in other RSC colors throughout 2024.

A Maze Zing blocks

I have one finished quilt from 2023 that was inspired by our color of the month in April, which was purple. I had been making little 3" 9-patches from purple squares sent to me in 2017 by Jennifer who blogs at Life"s Little Adventures. I combined the 9P blocks with half-square triangles for a small quilt top. That went together with an earlier purple quilt top of 4-patch blocks to make a reversible quilt I named Pretty in Purple.

Pretty in Purple (front) 36" x 48"

Pretty in Purple (back)

My last RSC project for 2023 is one that was started in 2022, the Rail Fence blocks. Each month I made 30-40 blocks in the color of the month. I ended up with over 300 blocks total and used most of them to make two small quilt tops.

Rail Fence Rainbows, 39" x 48"

Rail Fence Zigzag, 39" x 41.25"

It's not my largest output for a year of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I'm happy with what got done. I'm hoping to finish more rainbow quilts next year. It's time for me to figure out my new piecing projects for the year ahead.

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday, and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 10/15/2023

Our quilt guild has a meeting next week, which will be the last chance to turn in items for the annual Christmas market. I've been working on finishing up this set of placemats made from some very old Jinny Beyer prints.

 

I repeated a couple of the same fabrics on the backs. They are quilted very simply in the ditch, and I turned the backings to the front for binding.

The placemats used 2 yards of fabric from my stash. I also used 1.5 yards for the Daytripper II purse that I shared HERE. No new fabric was added to the stash this week.

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                           3.5 yards

Used year to date:                108.375 yards

Added last week:                         0.0 yards

Added year to date:                92.375 yards

Net used in 2023:                   16.0 yards

Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces has us tracking how many days each week we get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. My push to finish up projects for the guild market meant I definitely got more than 15 minutes every day last week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

10/8 - 10/14              7 of 7 days

2023 Total          275 of 287 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Turquoise/Teal/Aqua Scrappiness

There have been lots of aqua, turquoise and teal scraps getting used in my sewing room this week, as I attempt to catch up on my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had so many 2" strips in those colors that I made four A Maze Zing blocks instead of my usual two or three.

After finishing those blocks, I used some of the leftover strips to make another strippy, scrappy placemat for the 2023 Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter. This placemat will join the stack being donated to Meals on Wheels.

It seemed like a long time since I had worked on any of my other RSC blocks. Some of them had been made during the last week of August because we found out the RSC color for September a few days early. I decided to take a look at the whole group together on the design wall.

As you might have guessed, these are some of my favorite colors. I've had a great time digging through the aqua, turquoise and teal scraps this month, but now I'm ready to find out what our new color will be for October.

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday, and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I'm also linking up with the ABC Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunny Yellows

How did August disappear so quickly?! It's hard to believe that we are already at the last yellow Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've been scrambling to finish up the rest of my RSC projects for the month.

The first set of blocks to be done were my A Maze Zing blocks, based on the pattern by Candace Hassen. My blocks will finish at 13.25" x 19.25", and I am still undecided if they will become a quilt or get made into individual placemats.

After completing the A Maze Zing blocks, I had a pile of 2" yellow and gold scraps and strips on my cutting table. Before I put them away, I used several of them to make this strippy placemat for the August edition of the ABC Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.

Most of the placemats I make will get donated to Meals on Wheels through either of the two guilds I belong to. I had a few more strippy versions from past months, which made a pretty display together on the design wall.

My other scrappy yellow project for the week started with some leftover blocks from a very old quilt top, Tribble Trouble, pieced way back in 1998! (See that quilt and read more HERE.) I joined the extra blocks together, along with some dark blue sashing/border strips, to make this 19" x 42" tablerunner. Blue and yellow have always been a favorite color combination for me.

I have one more set of yellow blocks to finish before the end of the month, but they will have to wait until next week.

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday, and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I'm also linking up to the ABC Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 7/30/2023

I have been working on a variety of quilting projects this week. When I looked back over the week, it turned out that several of my projects were placemats. The first set was inspired by a mini-charm pack (2.5" squares) given out at our recent quilt guild meeting. We were challenged to make something with the squares for one of the guild's community service projects, so I went with placemats which will be donated to Meals on Wheels. By adding a few squares from my stash plus a border fabric, I was able to make two placemats.

These placemats have been finished around the outside edges, but they are not yet quilted. Instead of adding a binding, I basted a piece of batting to the top, then placed the top and back facing one another and stitched all the way around, leaving a small opening to turn. After turning, I pressed well, then top stitched 1/8 from the finished edge. As you can see below, the backing fabric is the same as the border. I'm finding placemats to be a great way to use up some of my older fabrics.

The next set of placemats have also been finished off around the outer edges, but are not quilted yet. The tops for these were finished about a week ago, made with the A Maze Zing pattern by Candace Hassen. The placemat at bottom right shows the backing fabric that was used for all of them. This set of placemats will be one of the items for sale at the guild's Christmas market.

The last set of placemats for the week were made as part of the ABC Table Scraps Challenge, hosted by the Joyful Quilter. Our color of the month, as determined by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, is red, and our ABC Challenge letters are A and G. As usual, I struggled to figure out a way to apply the letters, but decided that as long as I made something, it's All Good!

I dug through my box of orphan blocks and found a bag of red hourglass blocks. I figured out that these were made in 2016 when Bonnie Hunter's annual leader and ender project featured hourglass units. There were over 30 blocks in that bag, and I used 24 of them to piece two placemats.

Unlike the other placemats in this post, this set is completely finished, including quilting. My quilting is diagonal lines following the piecing of the blocks. You can see it best in the photo of the back. The same backing fabric was used on both, another very old fabric from my stash that is now mostly used up except for a couple of strips. These placemats will also go to Meals on Wheels.

Now it's time to figure out the stash used for these projects. I'm not counting the mini-charm squares in the first set of placemats since they were given to me and are going right back out again. Altogether, I used 1.75 yards for all three sets of placemats, which covers the borders and backing for the first set, the backing for the Christmas set, and the backing for the red hourglass mats (the fabric for those blocks was counted when they were made in 2016.) I also used 3/8 yard for my red Jabberwocky blocks, shared in yesterday's post.

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                       2.125 yards

Used year to date:                   60.50 yards

Added last week:                         0.0 yards

Added year to date:                62.375 yards

Net added in 2023                1.875 yards

Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces has us tracking how many days each week we get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. I'm trying to keep up with ongoing projects like the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, plus working on some of those community service projects for the guild. There was definitely more than 15 minutes spent quilting every day last week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

7/23 - 7/29           7 of 7 days

2023 Total      200 of 210 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. I'm also linking up with the ABC Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Tuesday To-Do List 7/25/2023

Welcome to another To-Do Tuesday! It's time once again to share how I did on last Tuesday's to-do list, (it has actually been two weeks since my previous list,) then figure out what I'd like to get done in the week ahead. The To-Do Tuesday link-up is hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric.

Having an extra week between posts made it much easier to complete everything on my last to-do list. In fact, many of the items on the list had even more done than planned in that additional time.

To-Do List for 7/11 - 7/17/2023

1. Modern Quilt Studio Mystery--remake a few blocks (change colors) ✔done 

I reworked one batch of blocks, then made the final set of blocks for the mystery. You can see them all in yesterday's post.

2. Rainbow Scrap Challenge 16-Patch Stars--make 2 red blocks  ✔done

3. A Maze Zing--make 2 blocks (red or Christmas)  ✔done

I made 3 red blocks, plus 4 blocks from Christmas fabrics. I'm having lots of fun making these blocks.

4. National Quilt Museum BOM--make Block #3      ✔done

I'm not wild about how my block turned out, but at least it's done.

5. Guild Christmas Market--it's time to figure out what I'm going to make for this sale  ✔partially done

The A Maze Zing blocks in Christmas fabrics shown above are going to become a set of placemats. I'm also going to make more of the Diva wallet that we learned in a guild workshop in May (see that HERE.)

It looks like another busy week around our house, and I should probably go with a shorter list, but I'm going to be optimistic and try to get through several different projects. Wish me luck!

To-Do List for 7/25 - 7/31

1. Modern Quilt Studio Mystery--start joining blocks

2. RSC Jabberwocky--make 2 red blocks

3. A Maze Zing--finish 2 Christmas placemats

4. ABC Table Scraps Challenge--red placemat

5. Guild Christmas Market--make 1 Diva wallet

That will be enough to keep me busy for the week ahead. I'll report on my progress next Tuesday, and post a new set of goals too. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Quilt Schmilt.

 

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA 

Scraps and Stars

I've been making progress on a couple of my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week. I started out by making two scrappy 16-Patch Stars blocks in red, our color of the month. I have lots of red scraps, so it was fun pulling fabrics for these blocks.

My other scrappy project that includes plenty of red was a set of four A Maze Zing blocks made from Christmas fabrics. The plan is to finish these off as placemats to be sold in our guild's Christmas market. Each block measures 13.25" x 19.25".

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday, and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA