OMG November is finished!

My November goal was to quilt the orange table runner I made in September for the Rainbow Scrap / Table Scraps Challenge. The orange squares have been made not only from scraps, but from crumbs!

Here it is, not only quilted, but bound too!

Crumby Orange Table Runner

I quilted the main part and the outside border with randomly spaced parallel straight lines, mostly in navy but also a few orange for some variation. The navy thread is exactly the same shade as the navy fabric; is that difficult to see when quilting! The shark's teeth (arrows) which I cut freehand I quilted free motion. As someone in an earlier post suggested they looked like flames, I stitched a flame-like motif on them.

A couple more photos because I took so many!

I'm linking to:

     

 

 

Click on the buttons to see more finishes and works-in-progress.

 

Keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly.

OMG for November

My one monthly goal for November is to quilt this table runner that I made in September.

I'll be using orange and navy blue thread, but haven't decided on a quilting design yet.

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Unfortunately it's been rather quiet in my sewing room during October. I didn't reach my goal to quilt the bead quilt, which had also been my goal for September (sigh!) I did make progress, sewing round the coloured squares in the ditch, and then quilted between the lines of squares with freehand wavy lines. 

 

All was going well (I'd finished half of them) and I thought I would get them all done last week, but continued too long on Monday, strained a tendon in my left thumb, and had to sit and nurse it for the rest of the week! More haste, less speed! I also thought it would be a good plan to quilt the "beads" by hand - a mammoth task - but will make a good handwork project for the winter evenings, I hope. In any case this won't be finished any time soon!

I'm linking to :

Click on the button to see more handwork goals for this month.

Keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly.

Crumby orange table runner

The RSC colour is orange this month. I emptied my orange scrap bag and made these eight 4.5" crumb blocks. Together with improv triangles from 3.5" orange strips and Bella solid yardage in navy blue they've become a table runner.

Measurements: 38"x 17.5" (0.97m x 0.45m)

Thank you to those who responded last week about the orientation of the triangles. I tried both directions but found them rather threatening pointing outwards; pointing inwards they resemble shark's teeth about to devour the crumb blocks, which is fine by me! 

Quilting will have to wait; at present I'm layering a large lap quilt.

I used to layer quilts on the living room floor, but nowadays I can get down on the floor OK, but getting up when I've finished ...!! I'm trying to layer on the table, but this lot keeps slipping off!

I'm linking this weekend to:

      

 Click on the buttons to see more (orange) scrappiness 

and this week's progress. 

Keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange progress

This month's RSC colour is orange and my orange table runner for the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter is progressing with stops and starts.

5" crumb squares set in Bella solids navy blue with improv triangle borders to make up the length. There will be a 2.5" navy border beyond the triangles. Do you think it looks better with the orange triangles pointing towards the squares (as on the left) or away from them (as on the right)?

I find sewing crumbs a time consuming occupation, but the orange scrap bag is now empty 😊  of crumbs. For the triangles I dipped into the drawer of 3.5" strips, although I don't really consider strips as scraps, rather pre-prepared pieces.

 I'm linking to:

Click the button to see more orange scraps in use.

Keep healthy and safe.

Happy sewing

Marly

Making orange fabric

This month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Soscrappy is orange. Earlier this week I emptied my orange scrap bag and made some 5" squares.

Now I'm making more:

Work in progress. Note the orange scrap bag; made of orange scraps, for orange scraps.

They will become part of a table runner, for the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.

 I'm linking to

 

Click on the button to see more orange scraps in use.

 Stay safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Green, Orange & Teal / Aqua

This month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is teal (and aqua). I was late deciding on a block, and have used the first three colours all in the same month.

My aim is to make four of these 8" square blocks in the colour of each month, except dark blue, brown and black, which won't show up well against the charcoal grey background. As it is, this month's dark and bright green is just about on the limit of contrast.
The coloured pieces are all from stash: the 2.5" squares from the scrap baskets, and the 4.5" squares mainly from fat quarters. The charcoal grey pieces are from 2.5" x WOF strips of yardage; one strip is exactly enough for two blocks.

I'm linking up to

Click on the button to see more rainbow progress.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Some teal and catching up with orange

This month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is teal, of which I have very little. I hope I'll get the chance to make more blocks later in the year.

For I have finally decided on a block for this year's challenge:

Beads

 These are 8" square and are very simple to make:

• background: 
• 2 strips  2.5" x 4.5"
• 2 strips  2.5" x 6.5" (All the background fabric for two blocks can be cut from one 2.5" WOF strip.)
• colour:
• 2 squares 2.5"
• 1 square 4.5"

If you want to make a whole bead quilt quickly, and not scrappy, Jordan Fabrics has a You-Tube video. The measurements are different and the method is phenomenally faster than mine - but mine is scrappy!

I also have some orange ones:

On Saturday I'll be linking to 

Click on the button to see other participants' teal pieces.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange hour-glasses

After January's green, Angela gave orange as the colour for February. I like orange; it's such a happy sunny colour, and sunshine is what we could use here now!

I explained in January that I was combining several challenges so the hour-glasses for the AHIQ was combined with the RSC colour for January. And now February too!

Here are my improv hour-glass blocks:

The four on the left and right are 5.75" square, and the other four are 5.25" square. That will be an interesting jig saw! But that's improv! 😀

I really need to think about what I'm going to use as my RSC block this year. I don't intend making wonky hour-glass blocks next week, whether in red?, yellow?, pink? or ? ...

...OK, it's TEAL.

I shall be linking this in due time to:

 

click on the button above to see more orange happiness!

Happy sewing

Marly.

QAL: The Unconventional and Unexpected: Overlapping Octagons

I've decided to join in The Unconventional and Unexpected Quilt A-Long . The QAL is being hosted by Sujata Shah, whose work I have admired since I bought her book,  "Cultural Fusion Quilts". The inspiration for this QAL comes from the book "The Unconventional and Unexpected", by Roderrick Kiracofe. For more information check Sujata's posts on The Root Connection. I have chosen to start with the quilt "Overlapping Octagons".

I decided to join in after much deliberation. After all, "Do I really need another project?" "Yes", I answered myself, "You have to move on and this will be a new challenge."

My fabric choice is this:
 

blue and neutrals: a bulging bucket of blues and the right hand pile in the box. My supply of neutrals is very low, and in need of urgent replenishment.

with a few splashes of:

orange: starting with the scraps on the left.

Yesterday I started sewing blue strip scraps together along the short ends as leaders and enders in another project. These will be chopped and sewn together with others to make the string rectangles in the Overlapping Octagons. I shall be ordering more neutrals/ low volume during next week.

My plan is to cut the fabric freehand with the rotary cutter, although I shall be piecing the strips on phone book pages to keep them stable, as I can't manage to cut on the grain freehand, and would like to avoid wobbles and bubbles!

I'm already enjoying this project and look forward to sharing information and progress with others at Basket full of Scraps.

I'm linking to

Click on the button above to see more works in progress.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Good Fortune Clue 5

Yes, 5! I have looked at 6, and I've even cut a few strings, while straightening edges for the clue 5 pieces. However Christmas week is always extra busy (and I know I'm not the only one) so I haven't got any further with this winter's Quiltville Mystery Quilt, "Good Fortune" than making some of last week's pieces. I also made some more of clue 2 as leaders and enders in clue 5. Perhaps that's an advantage of being behind!

15 pieces for clue 5; where's the one that got away?

As I was making these in pairs, one right- and one left-facing, I was very surprised to have one large blue triangle left over. Where did the other pair of triangles get to, I wonder! I'm not about to move the furniture to look for it now, so that's all of clue 5 for the moment.

As to clue 6, I'm happy that Bonnie gave the option to make the pieces from strings as I'm very low on neutral fabric, but I do have a bag dedicated to the off- cuts from straightening fabric before I start cutting for regular patchwork. I should be able to fill at least one telephone-book page from there, I hope before Friday.

I'm linking to:

So click on the button to see how other's have made clue 6 pieces.

I wish everyone all the best in 2019, especially

Happy sewing

Marly.

Good Fortune clue 4

24 orange string blocks as specified in clue 4 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, "Good Fortune". Well, actually Bonnie specified more than 24, but I'm just not able to spend so much time on the mystery this year.

24 string blocks

Once I'd cut the strings it didn't take much time, and as I still have plenty of strings there are more rectangles to come.

I'm linking up to the Monday link-up (on Wednesday!) at

and at the weekend to:



 Click on the button to see more quilty happiness.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Orange August

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge for August is orange. Mari posted new block for the Squared Away Sampler, and Angela decided on the colour.

Here are my two 10" blocks in orange and brown.

Speaking of rainbows:

This heralded the end of the heatwave yesterday. This rainbow was a complete semicircle, continuing round to fade into another block of flats about 1km. away to my right. I've never seen a complete rainbow before; they usually fade away before they get to a quarter circle.

On the weather front: the heatwave is over! Hooray! The daytime temperatures above 30°C (normal body temp is 36) are in the past. Yesterday's rain didn't amount to much so it didn't make any difference to the yellow crunchy grass.

I'm linking to

Click on the button to see more orange scraps being put to good use!

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange!

This is my second finish for April's One Monthly goal, which I posted about here

The Dutch Modern Quilt Guild's theme of the month for March is "Orange" or in Dutch "Oranje" which is the name of the colour and of the Royal Family. The royal connection to the colour has given rise to the predominance of the colour orange in the clothing of our national sports teams. As it's the King's birthday the day after tomorrow shops are full of orange-coloured goods; everything from tee-shirts to pastries; I think this month's Dutch MQG theme choice was also informed by this week's event.

Anyway, I, being originally British, decided that "orange" is a fruit as well as a colour and made my representation of an orange, rolling down the drunkard's path! I think it will become the first of several blocks featuring complementary pairs of colours.

I added the name just in case it wasn't recognisable!

This was incidentally my first attempt at appliqué letters, drawn freehand, traced onto tracing paper and then traced again back-to-front onto Heat and Bond . It was much easier than I expected. The DP blocks I made without pins, following the perfect tutorial by Leanne at she can quilt.

This little piece of patchwork measures 13.75" x 15.5" and is waiting to be joined by more similar paired-colour pieces.

I'm linking this to 

Click on the button to visit the party.

We have a public holiday here on Friday, in honour of the King's birthday; if you're in The Netherlands make the most of your free day, and for the rest of the world:

Happy sewing!

Marly.

September was the orange month ...

... in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I have just caught up with two of the rainbow projects I started in January.

I showed the orange basket last week:

and this week I finished an orange 7x7 patch with wonky star.

I made a few at the beginning of the year but work got very busy in the spring leaving me very little time for sewing. I shall be picking up the projects in 2018 and hope to have more success.

I also made an orange wonky star for the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild block-a-week project. (I'm way behind with that too!)

In the meantime pink (October's colour) has now taken over my sewing room. I'm heading off there to start sewing my pairs of 2" pink squares together for the next 7x7 patch.

I'm linking up to 

Click on the button to visit Angela where everyone else is in the pink!

Happy sewing

Marly.

Orange basket

 September in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was coloured orange.
 Last week I showed my few orange scraps:

 I  started by joining the little pieces together:

This was the result, although one or two (for example bottom right) still needed to be straightened. It's definitely easier to join the larger  patches when they are all some sort of rectangle.


The next step was to sew the pieces to the wadding and batting, starting in the middle with a couple of "uglies" which won't be seen as they form the base of the basket. Then I went round log-cabin style adding strips of made fabric and strips from stash. On the left of this picture you can see all that was left of the pile of scraps in the first photo; these are the really smallest pieces, and now reside a polythene bag in the finished basket waiting to be used for appliqué.

basket fabric before cutting (two outdoor candles defying the wind and holding down the corners!)

Having cut out rectangles to form the base, joined the side seams and then the base seams, made and added the handles and added the binding, I had this:

Finished basket: pattern by Fiona at BubzRugz

This time I cut the binding at 2.75" which fitted more comfortably under the walking foot, especially when stitching across the handles where there is three times the normal thickness. I also reduced bulk by pressing the side seams open; just visible in this photo:

I'm linking up to

so head over there and see what else has been made in orange this September.

Happy sewing

Marly.