Scrap Armada

Turns out I don't have that much in the way of purple scraps anymore. I have made a couple more postage stamp stars per this month's color palette for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge however.

Mostly I've been making more ships. My fleet has grown from this...

to this:

And yes, I broke away from the RSC palette to make a few other postage stamp stars. ;- )

What are the chances pink will be part of next month's scrap palette?

This block and these tulips...

say Happy Easter! to me. And Happy Easter to you too!

You can check out how others are using their purple scraps over at SoScrappy.

Danger Will Robinson!

As usually happens, things started innocently enough with an assortment of blocks out of the scrap piles. (Yes, piles. They are organized, but piles nevertheless.)

I broke out of the color palette for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with the two little ships (6" each).

Next thing I knew this is what was on the design wall:

And then this:

I think things have gotten a little out of control!

Stitching Along in March

As you're probably aware, I need to do some handwork from time to time. I can't keep up with a weekly post to share what I'm currently stitching but I found a group who post every three weeks  to show the progress they're making. And I get to play along!

I actually have a few things I've made that have never been featured on this blog. Hopefully this will give me the motivation to make sure you get to see those goodies in addition to whatever I happen to be working on at the moment. For now let me just show you my current hand project. 

I'm a big fan of the Stitch & Zip kits. Basically they are prefinished needlepoint projects. I like the little coin purse/credit card cases because they fit nicely in my small hands. And I like using them for my business and credit cards! I did that e-reader case for my friend C~  recently, and even that turned out well in the end. (By which I mean it didn't require heavy blocking like a pillow canvas would.) 

As winter was drawing to a close around here I felt the need for something cheerful and tropical. I chose this card case kit:

It was already halfway done when this picture was taken. I changed out one color from what was provided in the kit. The flamingo was supposed to be outlined/highlighted in red. I swapped that out for a dark pink instead.

Back in the day I experimented with all sorts of fancy needlepoint stitches. Now I find peace and relaxation by filling in swathes of color with simple basketweave stitching. I also like the way it looks on the back of the work.

And now it's all done. Ta-daa!

Color me happy. :- )

Now to go 'round the world to see what everyone else has been up to! You can click on the links below to see for yourself.

Avis at https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com
Claire at http://claire93.wordpress.com
Gun at http://rutigt.wordpress.com
Carole at http://aslightobsessionwithbooks.wordpress.com
Jule at http://fromtheboudoir.wordpress.com
Wendy at http://thecraftersapprentice.blogspot.co.uk
Lucy at https://lucyannluna.wordpress.com
Cathy at http://nanacathydotcom.wordpress.comJess at https://everthecrafter.wordpress.com

Kate at http://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com

Sailing Off in a New Direction

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 I was planning to continue making the postage stamp stars I stumbled into late last year. As I said in the previous post, I've been a bit distracted since the beginning of the year. Consequently I've made very few stars per the colors suggested for each month's challenge, at least in comparison to last year's Ohio stars! These stars were made in blues with a touch of purple for January, brown with a touch of pink for February, and now purple with a touch of yellow:

I haven't been around Blogland much either lately. But one visit in particular made a lasting impact. Gayle is such a bad influence. Go check out her tee-tiny boats in this post. I'll wait here.

Are they cute or what?! But no way am I making three inch blocks. At least not right now (never say never after all). I couldn't get them out of my head though, and finally ended up making this:

Another postage stamp star in purple and yellow, and a little green ship. Twice as big as Gayle's though. ;- )

Before I knew it I'd started my own fleet.

So far they only feature the main color of the RSC for each month. However, I've discovered that I can get sails for my ships out of pairs of 2.5" scrap patches that I can't make work in shoo-fly or churn dash blocks. I'm thrilled with this discovery because it has led to a whole new long-range plan for putting all those shoo-fly blocks to good use. Woohoo!

I'm linking up with the other Rainbow scrappers this weekend. Who knows, maybe I'll even get around to see what they've been up to!

ScrapHappy in March

Kate and Gun have been hosting a ScrapHappy Day on the 15th of each month for a while now. I've participated a few times but it's been sort of hit and miss. Last year I watched Sheila make at least one potholder every month as part of her Rainbow Scrap Challenge efforts. That seemed like a do-able goal so I thought I'd give it a try this year.

Famous last words.

I was preoccupied at the beginning of the year with the F2F quilt for the ovarian cancer quilt project. Then it was the brown puzzle quilt last month. One quarter of the way into the new year and I'm finally getting on board! I pulled some of the extra 2.5" patches I routinely cut from scraps and made up an 8" 16 patch block.

I backed it with an 8" block from the Parts Department that I didn't think would ever work in a quilt. (No, you don't get to see it!) Then I thought about other blocks in the Parts Department that might be turned into potholders and came up with this:

I've also been working with the leftovers from the brown puzzle quilt.

But now I have my mind set on more cheerful colors!

If you go over to Kate's blog you'll find a complete list of those participating in ScrapHappy Day this month. It's an international group of talented people. You can take a trip around the world without ever leaving home. ;- )