A Little Celebration

Happy Fourth of July fellow citizens of the USA! 

Belated well wishes to my Canadian friends for their recent Canada Day anniversary too. :- )

When I started pulling red remnants for my RSC blocks this month I very quickly ran into some patriotic prints. They have been the focus of my block building this week. It all began with some 1.5" squares leftover from a project years ago. I made them into 9 Patch blocks and then turned those into little Sawtooth Stars (6").

Those of you who have been part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge longer than I have (this is my first official year) are probably well aware that red scraps can come from seasonal prints. For example, I found these hearts that were part of a Valentine's Day line:

And then I found these teddy bears and the ecru holly print in my Christmas stash.

I have to say, that block has me thinking about a red and white quilt for the Christmas season. For that matter, we could leave it out through Valentine's Day! 

At the end of the week this is what my design wall looked like:

Not bad, given how hot it's been around here. We are not used to, or prepared for, high temperatures in this corner of the States. My husband finally broke down and bought a portable air conditioning unit. Until it off-gasses completely it has to stay in the garage so any fumes it generates won't make me ill. Mr. Magpie has set up a bed out there so he can be comfortable through the night. He feels the heat more keenly than I do. I can manage with a fan in the bedroom, at least as long as the air quality remains safe enough for me to keep the windows open!

I'm linking up with the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge bloggers over at SoScrappy. There's a wonderful variety of blocks being made around the world!

June F2F Swap Reveal

Today marks the end of the first month of our Foot Square Freestyle block swap. Esther has received some of her blocks and the rest are on the way. I had hoped to put up pictures of all the blocks made during this swap on my dedicated F2F page but I haven't quite managed that yet. I've been incapacitated too often to have spent much time on the computer. I can, however, send you over to Kate's blog where you can see all the blocks that she has pictures of so far. And I can show you what I made. :- )

Esther requested blocks made with white, mustard, jade-ite or minty green, and coral. I just happened to have the perfect green in my stash! According to my book of block patterns this one is known as Ladies Wreath.

I made a Colorado block too, even though I have no association with the state of Colorado. It puts me in mind of a flower.

Lastly I made an Ohio Star since that seems to be my signature block this year.

There are all sorts of uplifting words and phrases in that gray print in the center of the star. I fussy cut the center patch to get the word 'Create' in coral tones for this star for Esther.

There was a good deal of paper piecing going on in other parts of the world for this swap. I heartily encourage you to pop over to Kate's blog to see what else was made during the month of June. Next up is Annett, who doesn't live all that far from Esther as it turns out. She has asked for blocks that feature white, green, turquoise, and orange. I've already got my blocks for her done but I wont' show them until Annett has them in her hot little hands. ;- )

Last of the Light Blues

For the time being anyway. ;- ) I've forsaken the big Ohio Stars for smaller stars and Wrench blocks.

Those are 9" stars and wrenches that will finish at 7.5". Oh, there's one 6" shoo-fly block and one 10" wrench in the collection too. 

I've been sewing up other scraps this week as well:

My stand-by 6" blocks and a few more stars and wrenches Oh look, there are a couple of light blue blocks in there. I'd forgotten about them! I tried out a couple of Bouncing Betty blocks (also known as Crosses & Losses). Not sure whether they will develop into the project I had in mind when I made the blocks. When I couldn't focus on a specific project I sewed up leftover triangles into Broken Dishes units. 

I'm looking forward to the new color to be announced in a few days. In the meantime I'm linking up with the other RSC bloggers today over at SoScrappy. There's a lot of inspiration to be had in those other blogs!

Still Blue

This is my design wall on this Scrappy Saturday:

You can see I'm still using up some light blue prints, which surprises me because there were so few in my stash. A little goes a long way in this case! I also found some purple and green scraps to sew into Ohio Star blocks.

I begged a few unused boxes from my local pizza shop in which to store the 12" stars. These boxes are for large pizzas (14") so they're perfect for the job.

They were kind enough not to charge me for them. :- )

You may have noticed that there are several 9" stars on the wall now too. I think my favorite moment in making these blocks comes when I press the upper third of the block away from the middle row.

It's magical, seeing those triangles suddenly become star points!

I made a couple more baskets this week as well. Couldn't resist using that basketweave print to make the whole basket.

I'll be linking up with the other RSC bloggers. If you haven't been around to see what they're making you're missing out on some wonderful blocks and quilts!

Baskets in Blue

I have been surprised at how few light blue remnants there are in my stash. The light blues I have found have not lent themselves to Ohio Star blocks either, in my opinion. I mean, one could certainly make Ohio Stars out of them but I wouldn't find them very interesting. Fortunately another option presented itself this week. The pattern for our monthly lottery block in my local guild is a 10" Basket block. That seemed a much better fit this time around.

Obviously the light blue basketweave print had to be the body of a basket. The flower print I thought I would use didn't really do it for me in the end. Sewing notions seemed like a good alternative though! That started me thinking about what else might be found in baskets. Or what about an empty basket? Maybe one that hadn't been used in a long time?

It's almost easier to make these blocks in pairs than singly so it wasn't long before I had this on my design wall:

And the rest of my design wall currently looks like this:

I haven't done much else with the light blue that was suggested for the RSC for June but I did find a teal from which I made a couple of 12" Ohio Stars. After I made them it occurred to me that I'd had the same print in dark green and made stars out of it a month or so ago!

I'm coming to understand why some of these prints have not been used until now. The scale of the prints or the values within them didn't coincide with the way I work. Of course, when I was buying many of these prints I didn't know what I would be making or how I preferred to work. I just bought what appealed to me. I still do that to some extent but now I know myself better and can avoid those prints that might prove difficult. Well... that's my story and I'm sticking with it. ;- )

I'm linking up with the other RSC bloggers. I appreciate all those who take the time to stop by and see what I've been doing. I do try to get around to all the blogs too but can't always make it. And for those who may be aware of my commitment to the Hands2Help challenge, I did manage to get the binding all sewn down on the African Stars quilt. I just have to ink the label and find an appropriate box for shipping. Hurray!