RSC Blues, Picket Star Block, and Other Quilty Happenings

The RSC color for April is light and bright blue. With last month's challenge being teal and aqua, my blue scrap bin has had a workout but still seems full of blue. I love the way blues pop on my design wall!

Scraptastic Star pattern by Melissa Corey

Geese Migration pattern by Cynthia Brunz at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Cynthia Brunz Irish Chain

Strings

I had help on my strings from Julierose at Julierose Quilts, who took the time to send me instructions on how she makes her beautiful "Ojos" - thank you Julierose!

Now that my "scrap chores" are over for the month I get to concentrate on other projects, such as this Picket Star block from Preeti's blog. She has generously created an excellent tutorial for it right here. Preeti has a perfectly lovely and appropriate name for it, but to me it is simply "Preeti's Block". It makes a big 17-1/2 inch block!

I love this block so much that I ordered more of these luscious fabrics by Jinny Beyer to make several blocks into a quilt.

One of the online stores where I found my fabric was Lone Star Quiltworks, a store I had visited in December when we took our grandson and his girlfriend to lunch in their college town. I talked my husband into going early so we could check out the store before we met them. It is a quilter's dream - clean and bright and full of beautiful fabrics! For some reason I migrated toward the long arm machines they had set up. I gave the Hand-Quilter Simply Sixteen a test drive, and oh my goodness! What a fun time I had easily maneuvering that piece of metal around. We asked the friendly demonstrator several questions before I finally asked "how much is it?" Well at $5995.95, and even with a payment plan, I decided maybe I'd just stick with my domestic Janome. And even if we could afford it, we would have to add on a room for it somewhere - lol! But oh it is fun to dream about it, especially when I'm wrestling a quilt through Miss Janome.

I am adding this post to the other fabulous blogs linking up to Cynthia's Oh Scrap! and Angela's Scrap Happy Saturday.

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!

Going Green With Strings

As I mentioned in my last post, this month's RSC color is light and bright green. When I visited Cynthia's blog the other day to link up with her Oh Scrap!, I saw that she had made green string blocks. In true squirrel fashion, I thought "string blocks!" and got my green scraps back out to play. Notice I said "play". In my last post I mentioned that I don't really enjoy "playing" with scraps. Well that has changed. String blocks are just fun. Another quilt in the works - just what I need (not!).

I saw a string block on Instagram with a wider strip that forms the center, so I experimented with that. I think I like any kind of string block! Both blocks are made with four 6-1/2 inch blocks sewn together for a 12-1/2 inch block.

One of the fun things about using scraps is seeing favorite fabrics I've used. This one is called Doglandia Unleashed, and I used it in my granddaughter's green quilt I made last year. The fabric is peppered with fun dog phrases such as "Fetch" and "get the ball" and "get the stick".

I'm pleased with the reduction in my green scrap bin, although it wasn't very big before.

I'm joining Angela's ScrapHappy Saturday and Cynthia's Oh Scrap! Go have a look at all the scrappy goodness!