Rainbow Bow Ties is finished.

             


Click on the buttons above for my posts about these projected finishes.

My third finish for the 2019 Q4 Finish A-Long is Rainbow Bow Ties, my Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2019. This is also my OMG goal for January 2020.

At something like the eleventh hour I finished sewing the binding down. I spread quilting the swirls over the previous two days. I used the design "swirls" from the book, "Stitching Pathways" by Wendy Sheppard. I found her technique of stitching a short distance and stopping to decide where to go next a real help and an eye-opener: "Why didn't I think of doing that?" instead of just letting the machine run on into increasingly  more hopeless places. This became a relaxed and interesting experience.

Close up of swirls; some more swirly than others, but we're getting there!

The idea for this quilt came from "Make Modern" magazine in 2018.

Fabric from stash, with some new neutral additions

Wadding 100 % cotton

Thread for piecing Aurifil 50 wt assorted colours

Thread for quilting Aurifil 50 wt colour 5011 (light khaki) 

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Happy sewing

Marly.

My goal for January 2020

is ...

Rainbow Bow Ties, all pinned and ready to quilt.

to have this, my RSC quilt in 2019, quilted and bound. The label is already on the back; I didn't forget this time and had it attached to the backing before I started layering.

The coloured fabrics were all scraps, but I had to add to the neutral stash for the sake of variety. The  squares were cut at 3.5" and the sew and flip triangles at 2" which resulted in 12" blocks. When I first saw this block unit I disliked it, but must say it has grown on me in the last few years, especially when I saw it made up into a quilt like this in the digital magazine "Make Modern". Now I am trying to decide how to quilt it. FMQ still worries me so I'm trying to think up a walking foot design other than straight lines. Whatever I decide I'll be reporting back at the end of the month.

I'm linking up to 

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With best wishes for 2020, and many happy sewing hours

Marly.

RSC 2019 Bow-ties is a finished top!

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Angela gives a colour and participants all over the world make blocks in that colour from their scraps. This year there is also a sampler; some of the block instructions being given by Angela, and some by participants themselves, resulting in a different tiny block each week.

This year I decided not to make the sampler, but to make bow-tie blocks inspired by a quilt published last year in "Make Modern" issue 22. I was particularly struck by the effect achieved by this layout.

This will be a lap quilt or possibly a baby quilt as it measures 48" by 54".

Here are some detailed photos.

Each coloured fabric occurs only once, but I had to repeat some of the neutrals.

Double Dutch Bee mates: can you spot some of the fabric from the uglies table in here? There are at least two!

I'm linking to

and 

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Happy sewing

Marly

Finish Along 2019 Q4

This is my list for the Finish along in the fourth quarter of 2019. As usual rather optimistic, but several items are nearing completion.

1.   Overlapping Octagons - for the UandUQAL hosted by Sujata Shah. The challenge is to reproduce a quilt from a photo in Roderick Kiracofe's book, "Unconventional and Unexpected, American Quilts under the radar". I have about one quarter of the quilting done.

2.   Pullover - The sleeves and neckline are done; I'm now weaving in the threads.

3.   Bow ties - inspired by a pattern in "Make Modern". My 2019 project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge
(The mistake below has now been corrected!)

4.    For the Boys - pattern by Jen Kingwell, published in her book "Quilt Lovely". This I will start as soon as the Overlapping Octagons and the Bow Ties are finished.


5.   Dwellings - appliqué wall hanging - pattern by  bjdesignsandpatterns.com

I'm linking to Sandra at Studio Sew of Course:

 

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 Happy sewing

Marly.

Rainbow Bow-ties

My project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at Soscrappy, this year has been bow-ties. I read yesterday that the colours for October are black, grey, and brown, so I decided to call it a day (or perhaps that should be year) and have started putting the quilt together.

webbing in progress

the last two columns waiting their turn

I first sewed all the blocks in column 2 to those in column 1. Then I added the blocks in column 3, and so on. On the table are all the blocks up to and including column 7 joined with vertical seams.

On the design wall are columns 8 and 9, here still waiting for the last two blocks but otherwise ready to be added to the rows on the table.

The next step will be to sew the horizontal seams which should go easily as the blocks are already attached to one another.

Ha,ha, look what I just found:

The last three blocks in each of the last two rows have somehow got twisted! Unpicking in progress! I hadn't noticed until I got to that point with the next column. One block I can understand, but six!

I'm joining:

                                      

Click the buttons to see more patchwork.

Happy sewing 

Marly

The last purple bow ties

September's rainbow scrap colour is purple. I showed a few blocks earlier in the month, but made these three this afternoon, at the eleventh hour, as it were. These were three of my haul from the "uglies" table at a quilt bee a few months ago.

I think the top right will have to be on the border between pale blue and purple in the final layout; it hasn't yet decided what colour it really is! I haven't seen October's colour yet, but I think I have enough bow ties, and I'm starting on the layout.

Have a good week!

I'm linking to
 
Click on the button to see more purple scrappiness.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Some purple bow ties

Angela posts a colour every month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and this month's colour is purple. I thought last month's colour would be purple, so while I was waiting for Angela's post I jumped the gun and made one at the beginning of August. It may even have crept into one of last month's posts, but here are all my purple bow ties so far; both for August and September!

I wasn't planning on doing brown or black, but I do need to make a few more blocks to get a satisfactory layout, so maybe grey will creep in next month too, as well as some of the colours I've already used.

I have another scrappy project on my design wall at the moment:

No planned colour scheme here!
4.5" shoo fly blocks for the 2019 Leaders and Enders challenge organised by Bonnie Hunter. If you're interested in the challenge, or just in the concept of leaders and enders click here.

Another scrappy project that's just come off the wall:

Overlapping Octagons is ready to be layered and quilted.

I'm linking up to 

      and  

Click on the buttons to see more scrappy delights.

Happy sewing

Marly.

some pale blue bow ties

For August the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pale and bright blue. I only had two pieces of pale blue large enough to make these two 6" blocks.

They look so washed out, and that isn't because it's raining so hard the whole world looks washed out from here, but because there isn't enough contrast between the pale blue and the neutral fabrics (and the weather doesn't help!). Maybe I'll only have two representatives of pale blue in my quilt.

I have some bright blue, but I used that in the "dark blue" month.

Are the two blocks on the right of the bottom row "dark blue" or "bright blue" ?

I also have these blues:
 

which I would have used in June, but find the print too big for these 6" blocks. They are bright in my opinion, but the print is still as large as it was in June!

And finally, still hot from the iron, my first 4.5" unfinished shoo fly block for the 2019 L&E challenge:

I'm linking up to: 

  

 Click on the buttons to see more scraps at work.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Happy sewing

Marly.

The last of the pink.

July has been in the pink for the participants in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. In just a few days Angela will reveal the colour for August.

In attempt to use some of the scraps in my stash I made these ten pink bow-tie units:

Each unit finishes at 6" square. Most of them were made as Leaders and Enders, but yesterday I cut off the bonus triangles from the last four and put those bow-ties together. Now I'm wondering what to do with 1.5" unfinished HSTs. Any ideas?

and these are just the pink ones!

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Happy Sewing

Marly.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge pink in July

A short post this week on just one topic!

Each month Angela posts a different colour and this month she has chosen pink.

pink bow-ties

I'm not making the RSC sampler this year, although I like the blocks, but making the same blocks, bow-ties, each month. I have four more pink ones in various stages of completion waiting next to the sewing machine; I'm using them as leaders and enders.

I'm linking up to



 Click on the button to see more scrappy  (pink) delights.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Summer Sampler and Clam up

My scrappy theme this year is bow tie blocks. I didn't get much sewing done at all in June as I was away for most of the month touring Eastern Europe, visiting cities that for most of my life were not accessible. I had some knitting with me as I've found knitting is very good at distracting the back-seat driver in me!

The last two weeks I caught up on my Rainbow Challenge blocks for June  (dark blue):

Even though I've never been to the United States some 4th July fabric has crept in there! I received it several years ago in a giveaway, and am gradually using it. I think that's it for blue this year, and I'll move on to pink this weekend.

I've also joined the Summer Sampler QAL  hosted by Lee Heinrich but couldn't start until I returned from my travels. Over the last two weeks I made four blocks

1. Spring Fever: Lynn Carson-Harris

2. Pixelations: Lee Heinrich

3. Curious Crossing: Krista Hennebury

5. Rope Twist: Amy Friend

but am still four blocks behind schedule.

Thursday I attended a workshop at QuiltersPalet quilt shop in The Hague to make a Clam-up pouch.
I didn't finish because my 35 year-old Bernina Nova refused to sew through two layers of foam plus the zip and four layers of quilting cotton! Not surprising really. My Bernina 404 managed with some difficulty, even when using the walking foot. Now I just have to finish some hand sewing on the inside.

Looks finished, but there's still a binding to sew down!

This was my first time putting in a rounded zip. Although I've made lots of pairs of trousers in the past, they have a much more gentle curve. This I found tricky, maybe due to the machine's difficulty in getting through so many layers of fabric, but I think to my inexperience.

I'm linking to 

 

 Click on the button to see more rainbow projects.

Happy sewing

Marly.