Is This a New Me?

I really had no business starting as many quilt-alongs this year as I did, but that didn't stop me. So when life's blessings and challenges took priority, I fell behind.  I would wander into my sewing room occasionally to work on something, but most projects just gathered dust. Generally, once I get too far behind I lose interest and don't finish. I don't actually quit the project - I just stuff it in a bag or container to finish later (ha ha)!

Luckily (?), I have no space left in my sewing room to start another project so I'm trying to finish a few starts from earlier this year.

I have actually finished all my little blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and now I'm sewing them into larger blocks for the piecing portion of my quilt. Yay!

That is such a good feeling. I definitely want more of it! The Meadow Mystery is still in progress, so yesterday I got busy finishing what I could. And now I think I'm caught up on that one too!

I'm really liking this. Maybe this is a whole new me.....like version 2.0.  Or Vicki2017...or....hey! does anyone remember the old Commodore Vic-20 computers? Is that what they were called? Wait. Where was I? How did I get so far off-track?

**sigh**  I guess the old me is still alive and well!!

Quick Bow Tie Cutting

To be honest, I didn't really think I'd get 800 little bow tie blocks finished by year end (80 blocks each month of the assigned color) back in April when I started the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I wanted to make a scrappy mini bow tie quilt and I was already behind as the quilt along had started in January.

800 Quilt Blocks!!

What does 800 quilt blocks look like?

Full disclosure -  these blocks are very small; it's not like piecing a 12" block. Right now they're unfinished 2-1/2" squares.

These are the blocks for my first ever Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Each month for 10 months we make one or more blocks of our own choosing from scraps of a designated color. I'm really excited to finish this one, so hopefully I can have a completed quilt to show soon.

I'm working on a tutorial for making a ton of these little blocks very quickly. Sadly, it was sometime during month 8 that I figured out how to cut out 80 of these in about a half hour. That's compared to the first color I worked on, which took me 3 or 4 evenings - working a few hours each night! So if you have a lot of smaller scraps you'd like to use up, this might be a scrappy quilt to consider making.

I should have the tutorial with my super speedy method for cutting the pieces for a bow tie block posted sometime this week.

Linking up with the RSC16 ScrapHappy Saturday.

Thanksgiving to Christmas Pot Holders

I was standing in my kitchen the other day when the towels hanging on my stove caught my eye and I thought, "hmmm, those don't really say Thanksgiving!".  ;)
So I figured I needed to change them.

Didn't Quite Catch Up

I started the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in April, so I was already behind when I chose a quilt with a lot of blocks. October is the last month that we're given a color - November and December are designated as the time to complete our quilt.

I still need to do the gray blocks and the yellow blocks. However, they should go pretty fast because I've finally got this down to a science! 

I've come up with a super fast way to cut the pieces needed to make the 80 blocks. What a shame that it took me so long! And I also have a good methodical chain-piecing and pressing routine. But that got me thinking how great it would've been to know these "speed tricks" when I started. So I'm going to take some pics as I cut and sew the last two colors and then put together a tutorial (just in case anyone wants to make a similar quilt during the next RSC). 

Until then, here's what I have so far - 80 blocks of each of the first eight colors. These little cuties will finish at 2" square! 

I'm linking up with Angela at ScrapHappy.

Pink Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I got all my hot(ish) pink squares cut, but I haven't sewn them into blocks yet. I'm linking these up with soscrappy for RSC16.

Earlier this month, I finished the brown bow ties so they got added to the box. There are now 400 little bow ties ready and waiting. I still need to get the blue ones from January (?I think?) done. I just fell behind a bit on everything this month.

Sometimes I fantasize about wearing a cute little micro-mini quilt block on a chain around my neck that has a button I could press and say "help - I've fallen behind and can't get caught up"! The dispatcher would come on, calm me down and say help is on the way. Then my front door would burst open and a fun group of super-quilters would rush in and start cutting and pressing and organizing. Most importantly, organizing.

  **sigh**  :)

12 Days of Christmas in July

I finished this quilt top in record time, thanks to the creativity and pattern writing genius of Sarah Craig who blogs at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. She ran a Christmas quilt tutorial for 12 days, after which you have a completed 76" x 76" quilt top!

The way this pattern is written is just fantastic. If you're thinking about making this quilt, let me tell you: do it! It's so fun to follow her directions and have all the seams nest together so smoothly....even with all those half square triangles going every direction!

I have quite a few Christmas quilts, so I decided to do more of a snowy winter's night take on it. I have white snowflakes on a scrappy dark batik background. And even with reversing the color scheme, it was a breeze!

I'll be linking up on Sarah's blog, where you can find lots of other quilty Christmas inspiration.

One final comment on the beauty of this pattern: today was day 12 (the final day) - I started on day 9!