April Monthly Color Challenge

The bird for April's Monthly Color Challenge is the Purple Honeycreeper - I love that name! This post is linked to Patterns by Jen Color Challenge 2020.

Jen created this pretty Square in a Square pattern which you can download (free only for the month of April) right here. All of the patterns are for 12-1/2 inch blocks, so at the end of the year I should have a nice sized quilt.

I used part of my Kate Spain Honey Honey collection from stash. I really like this block pattern and would like to see it as a quilt.

Re-done January and February blocks

I don't know about you, but sometimes I make a quilty decision that I regret down the road. You might recall I decided to make the January and February blocks 8-1/2 inches instead of 12-1/2 inches, in order to accommodate the size of my scraps. You may read about that decision here. Then I forgot to do that for the March block. I didn't want to redo the March block, so I added borders to bring the two previous blocks up to 12-1/2 inches, and that riveting post is here. Although I liked my do-over blocks, every time I looked at them they just didn't look quite right to me, and it finally drove me crazy enough to remake the blocks again! It's all good though, because I can still use the smaller blocks as part of the backing.

Be sure to go check out all the lovely birdie blocks here!

March Monthly Color Challenge

The representative bird for the Monthly Color Challenge for March is the Baltimore Cardinal. Since my orange scraps are depleted from last month's RSC, I decided to go with the female Oriole, who has more muted gold/orange/yellow feathers than the brightly colored male. You can click on the 2020 Monthly Color Challenge button in my sidebar for more info. It isn't too late to catch up!

This block is formed with HSTs and with flying geese using the no-waste method. Am I the only one who forgets to press the seams after the first cut? I always have to rip stitches! Also I have a little difficulty trimming the geese using a regular ruler. Some day I shall purchase a ruler made for trimming flying geese, and my life will be perfect.

February's Indigo Bunting block enlarged from 8-1/2 to 12-1/2 inches

The block patterns produce a 12-1/2 inch block, and I had forgotten that last month I reduced the block size to 8-1/2 inches in order to accommodate my scraps. Sooooo, although I really liked the 8-1/2 inch blocks, I went ahead and added fabric to the borders of the January and February blocks. It's just asking too much of myself to remember to make that adjustment each month!

To enlarge January's Goldfinch block to 12-1/2 inches, I cut into some long

hoarded Michael Miller fabric called Summer Soiree by Paula Prass.

This month's RSC color is teal, and my overflowing scrap bin is ready. I'll be making a Scraptastic Star, string blocks, a Geese Migration block, and an Irish chain block. Hopefully that will help reduce the overflow somewhat. Before I start, I plan to use Preeti's suggestion of separating my scraps into greenish blue and bluish green! We are good to go on groceries for a few days, and with no visitors or activities scheduled for awhile I should have plenty of time to get going on scraps.

I'll be linking this post at the end of the month with Jen's 2020 Monthly Color Challenge for March.

Orange and Blue Scraps and First Squirrel of 2020

Scraptastic Star in orange

Orange strings

The RSC2020 color for February is orange, and the above blocks are added to the Scraptastic Star and string blocks I made last month.

This scrap challenge is good for me to overcome my reluctance to put warm and cool shades of the same color together. Last month I felt constrained to try to blend my greens on the star, but this month I felt more free. And I like the combination just as well!

In my previous post I talked about joining the 2020 Color Challenge. The bird for February is the Indigo Bunting, and I struggled to find large enough blue scraps to make HSTs for this block. We have the option of not using scraps, but I really want to use my scrap bins this year. Finally I found a piece I thought appropriate for the blues I wanted but did not have enough of it, so I got the bright idea to reduce the size of the block from 12-1/2 inches to 8-1/2 inches. I really like the result.

I also redid last month's Goldfinch block to the same 8-1/2 inches and not only used different fabrics but also did my own take on the pattern.

In other news . . .

And I am deep into 2020 Squirrel Country. I've been pulling darker shades of my stash for Friendship Stars. My inspiration was from by @pamalamajodesigns on Instagram, whose photo (see below) instantly put me on a quest to try something different. I love the dark richness of the fabrics I'm using, and I'm having fun. And having fun with a squirrel is all that matters, right?

Pam calls hers "spinning stars" and made a unique doll quilt from them.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy, Cynthia's Oh Scrap!, and will link up with Jen's 2020 Color Challenge when it goes live at the end of this month. Have a great weekend!

January 2020 Monthly Color Challenge

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts always has the neatest projects going on, and when I saw that she had joined the 2020 Monthly Color Challenge, I just had to check it out. The challenge involves a block in a different color each month, which will make good use of my scrap bins, and the color inspirations are from birds, so what's not to like?

Here is the list of each monthly color and its bird counterpart:
January yellow: Goldfinch
February teal: Indigo Bunting
March orange: Oriole
April purple: Honey Creeper
May green: Budgerigar
June blue: Blue Bird
July rust: American Robin
August pink: Flamingo
September cinnamon: Cinnamon Teal
October olive: Ruby-crowned Kinglet
November buff: Buff-breasted Sandpiper
December red: Cardinal

The challenge is sponsored by Jen at Patterns by Jen, and she provides a monthly pattern that is free only during that month. The January block is a simple one that goes together quickly with strip piecing, unless you elect to go "scrappy", and it finishes at 12-1/2 inches. I say the pattern was simple, but as you see in my first attempt above, I still managed to place a 4-patch in the wrong direction!

My "yellow" is a dark gold that was hard to capture in a photo

This post is linked to the January linkup on Jen's blog, and you can see other yellow goodies by clicking on the logo above.