Teal and aqua Squared Away.

June's colours in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are teal and aqua. These are two colours that give me problems: I have difficulty deciding if they aren't really blue, or really green. Hoping for the best I made two blocks for the Squared Away Sampler:

 This block, chosen by Mari, is called Country Lanes.

 

Further this week I added two sides to the Round Robin for the Kingfisher Quilt Bee which meets in The Hague. I took fabric with me when I was on holiday and hand-appliquéd solid circles onto a print background. When I got home I added the strip with circles to the centre block made by another bee member. More rainbow bear paws, but not mine this time!

And now I can't think how to go on! I've had lots of ideas and rejected them all. I added a 1.75" off-white strip around the other two sides, intending to add two chessboard rows. Now, however, I've gone off that idea and think I should continue the circles theme. Do you have any brilliant ideas for me? Asymmetrical is OK as the Kingfisher is part of the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild. I have another ten days before I have to pass it on. I would really appreciate some help here!

30 June: Update on the bear paws

I've decided on more circles but with a change of scale.

I'm linking up on Saturday to

so click on the button above from about midday Saturday 

[Central European S.T. (U.T.C. +2)]

to see more rainbow delights. 

Happy sewing

Marly.

March's OMGoal almost finished!

At the beginning of March I set trying to finish this quilt as my goal:

(and, incidentally at the beginning of February too!) Unfortunately it's still not quite finished. I don't know what happened to March, except that it quick marched all the way and April starts in seven and a half hours!

The picture below doesn't look very different, but appearances can be deceptive.

Rainbow Bears' Square Dance at the end of March.

The difference is in the detail:

All the rainbow blocks are now quilted, the label is attached (nearly forgot it!). The extra wadding and backing could now be removed and the quilt bound but I can't find the last piece of dark grey fabric to make the binding! If I find it, I'll try to finish it tomorrow evening, and otherwise it will have to wait until later in the week as the LQS is closed until Wednesday.

Guess what's going to be first on my list for April!

I'm linking to 

 

Click on the button to visit more finished projects, really finished, that is! 

Happy sewing

Marly.

February's monthly goal ...

... for One Monthly Goal was to at least start quilting the rainbow bears square dance.

Well I've started.

Using the walking foot I've nearly finished quilting wobbly lines in the negative space / wide sashings. Originally I was going to do straight lines, but there was a practical problem as the sashings are different widths, and I couldn't work out how to manage the transition from wide to narrower. This way the lines just wobble closer together. All this wobbling: the bears not only stepped in the paint pots, they partook of a wee dram too many as well!

This will carry over to my goal for March as I still have to quilt the bears' paws. That will be FMQ; probably also wobbly lines, although not deliberately!

I'm linking up to

 

Click on the button to see what other crafters have achieved this month.

Happy sewing

Marly.

February OMG

My goal for February is to start the quilting of this one: my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt from 2016.

The bears' rainbow square dance.

This has been a top since February 24 2017. I would like to get it quilted this month, but it's a short month, so I'll settle for layering and starting quilting. If I get it completely finished that will be a bonus.

This is my One Monthly Goal for February; I'll be linking up when the link is open.

Click on the button above to see other wonderful goals for February.

Happy sewing

Marly

2018 FAL Q1 list

Once again the Finish-A-Long is open and sewers, knitters and crocheters have been invited to submit their lists of ongoing projects they hope to get finished in this first quarter of 2018.

I don't have any ongoing projects that will be finished within the next three months, but I do have a number of completed quilt tops. If I can finish one a month that will be good going, so here is my list of three tops plus a small item I haven't yet started sewing:

1. En Provence, Quiltville mystery 2016-17
2. Bears' Rainbow Square Dance, RSC 2016
3. The Sky at Night, RSC 2015, which is complete, there are no longer two missing blocks.
4. Blue/aqua scrappy basket from a pattern by Fiona at BubzRugz     

1.  En Provence, Quiltville mystery 2016-17

2. Bears' Rainbow Square Dance, RSC 2016

3. The Sky at Night, RSC 2015

4. Scrappy baskets: waiting for blue

It is really shameful that these have been lying around for up to two years. I hope I can get this lot out of the boxes and onto beds and laps and in use!

I'm linking to Leanne at "She Can Quilt" where there are already more than 90 participants with a finish list.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

RSC 2016 finished top and a start on RSC 2017

Each month Angela gives a colour and worldwide lots of quilters start sewing their scraps in that colour. February's colour is teal/aqua. I wonder what next month's colour will be.

I finished the Bears Paws blocks and have started on some nine-patches in aqua/turquoise/teal

and in purple (January's colour):

Most effort this week, however, went into putting my blocks from last year's challenge together. I decided last week to add "frames" rather than sashing, and give the blocks a frame of in total 6" if you add left and right together: 4" on one side and 2" on the opposite side, or 3"on both sides.

Thus each block went from 14" square to 20.75" square. I changed the relative positions of the wide and narrow pieces in each block. I had intended to put those larger blocks together randomly, but was afraid the empty spaces would become too unevenly distributed. So began my planning headache! The only constant is in the corners; a two inch frame in the corner to help define the whole as a square and hopefully to prevent the appearance of sagging. (I wish that was always so easy!)

Now I have to think of a name. Hmm ... Rainbow Bears?, ... Multi-coloured Bears?, ... Bears in the Paint pot? Any ideas?

I'm linking up this week to: 

                            

Click on the buttons to see more from scraps and a lot of finishes.

Happy sewing

Marly

RSC 16 The last of the Bear's Paws

Each month Angela gives a colour and worldwide lots of quilters start sewing their scraps in that colour. February's colour is teal/aqua, and as I only needed two more bear's paw sections to  finish my RSC quilt from last year, aqua they are!

Here they are with the two remaining purple paws from last week:

The block that didn't make it into the quilt top, but will be incorporated into the back somehow.

And here are the other nine blocks, not yet in their final placement:

These blocks measure 14" square as they are; 13.5" in the final setting

I got so much advice last week about the sashing colour, for which I'm very grateful. Here's a peek at the final block, not with sashing as I suggested last week, but framed.

Maybe there'll be a finished top before the end of this month.

I'm linking up to:

     

Click on the buttons, to see more scraps made beautiful.

Enjoy your week, wherever you are.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Autumn Sunshine

Angela at Soscrappy gave yellow as this month's colour.

Bear's paws basking in the sunshine

I had lots of 2" yellow strips left from last year's Quiltville mystery from Bonnie Hunter. But if  I needed confirmation that my guest bedroom/sewing room needed tidying I got it when I couldn't find them anywhere! Yesterday evening, having just finished sewing these, guess what ... I found the 2" yellow roll already set aside and ready to use!

A week or so ago I laid out all my bear's paws to date to see what I had and how I could mix the colours. 

I still have to make two red pairs and at least one more blue pair, and split the purple and pink combination (top right) as there's too little contrast. I'm certainly nowhere near being finished with this one! I don't even have enough for a lap quilt, but I hope to have some of these units joined into blocks before the end of the year. Next year will see the same quilt moving along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

I'm linking this post to

Pop over there and look at all the creative yellowness!

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Playing catch-up - June's aqua blocks for the RSC 16

Angela at Soscrappy is hosting a rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year. I decided not to tie myself to her sampler blocks, but to use the colours each month in making a bear's paw block. I was occupied with other things in June, but this week I made the units of my bear's paw in aqua, which was the colour for June. (For more about this project click here)

June - Bear's Paw units in aqua

Now I've caught up on this project it's time to look out the other projects lounging in their boxes and give them a shake up! I guess Angela won't be announcing the new colour for another week or so; can I finish "Allietare!" in one week??!

I'm linking to 

so hop over there to see all the pink perfection 

other participants are making in July.

Happy sewing

Marly.

July's RSC blocks: pink.

A short post this time as I finally got back to the sewing machine yesterday after a break of more than five weeks. My hip has continued to heal steadily, thanks to everyone's good wishes, and I can now walk without supports for short distances (like 50 metres!), but that's a start. However, I still have a rolling gait, as if I've just spent the last five weeks at sea!

Once at the sewing machine yesterday I sewed these bear paws:

Oops! Bottom left looks larger than the rest .. I didn't get round to trimming before the photo!

and then put everything so far up on the design wall.

Bear's paw blocks will finish at 13.5" square.

The block top left is the only one finished, and I'm thinking of unpicking the sashing and redoing it at 1.5" finished width, the same size as the squares. I shan't be joining any of the other units until I have all the colours finished and can make combinations I really like.

I'm linking up to

 

so nip over there to see masses of pink perfection!

Happy sewing

Marly.

May greens for RSC 16

Each month Angela chooses a different colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this month that colour is green.

I'm making bears' paws this year and here are my four green ones. After stepping in green paint these bears have all painted their nails black and white for a change! an idea I copied from @hoosiertoni and Jessica at Quilty Habit.

I've been making the HST's as leaders and enders while making other things, mainly 1930's Farmer's Wife blocks. I seem to be forever cutting black and white triangles, but all the rest is pretty effortless, unlike the FW blocks!

I'm linking to 

   and  

Click on the buttons for more scrappy surprises!

Happy sewing

Marly.

More bears' paws

Angela at Soscrappy has given us orange as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for April. The month is almost over, and I'm interested in which colour we will be moving on to. In April I have made four orange units and two have already been included in a finished block.

Here's my first bear paw block completed:

I've paired two of the orange units I made this month with the two brown units I made earlier in the year. The bear paw units finish at 6" each and I added a 1" wide sashing within the block. I haven't yet decided on the sashing for between these 13" blocks.

I made two more orange units, and here they are on the design wall, temporarily paired with the two blue units I made earlier. I'm not joining these yet; I'll wait until I have more options.

This week not just my sewing room, but the whole of  The Netherlands will be orange: more orange than usual, that is! It's the King's birthday on Wednesday, and for that we have a public holiday. Many people who follow soccer will know that the Dutch team always wears orange, but for other sports the national teams are also dressed in orange. Orange is the national colour. The national flag however is red, white and blue, but the royal family is the House of Orange, and their heraldic flag has a lot of orange on it. On Wednesday an orange pennant will be added to the flags flown on public and private buildings in honour of the King's birthday.

grandson escaped!

My 9 year old grandson is already wearing an orange, white and blue trainings jacket, and of course our patriotism is being encouraged by commercial interests:

King's day display in the supermarket: orange hats, scarves tee-shirts and tooters, beer in orange tins, cakes which usually have white, or pink or chocolate icing now coloured orange. All at "special" prices!

and if you drink enough Heineken you can buy a King Willem-Alexander tee-shirt!

I hope to have more orange festivity photos later in the week.

I'm linking to :

    

(click on the button for more scrap quilting ideas)

And on Tuesday to 

Free Motion on the River 

(click on button on right side bar)

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 16 an orange bear

Angela has given us orange as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for April.

Last week I showed orange and black HSTs that I'd made as leaders and enders while making 1930's Farmer's wife blocks. This week, however, I haven't been using orange in my leaders and enders, but making black and white HSTs. 

Black and white HSTs: some made, some prepared for stitching

Then I put them together in a 16-patch bear paw. 

An interesting discovery was finding it easier to get a good square result when I first joined the squares and HSTs into 4-patches, rather than in four rows of four. I find it easier to trim a square than a long row.

I wrote the above while waiting at the hairdresser's this morning where I was surrounded by orange:

1970's retro orange; 2016 art with a dash of orange (one of a series called "through the curtain" - this one reminds me of a Goya veiled nude)

more retro orange

I'm linking with

Click on the button for more juicy orange.

Happy sewing

Marly.