Purple table scraps

The Joyful Quilter has a challenge, linked to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, to use scraps to make something for a table in the colour of the month. This month's colour is purple. I'm pairing purple with yellow, its complementary colour.

Not much purple in the purple scrap bowl. I planned on making a placemat, but maybe I'll have to settle for a mug rug.

I had more purple pieces than I thought. I started with the scrap bag, where most of the pieces were crumbs, and not nearly enough. My drawers of strips, sorted by width, proved to contain enough purple.

Following a tutorial on fine line piecing published last month by Debbie Jeske I set out to join the crumbs and other scraps. I cut the yellow strips at 0.5", although I had started with wider. I found that half an inch was wide enough if I sewed a scant quarter inch seam

Adding  a yellow strip with a scant quarter inch seam 

 

chain piecing the yellow strip

and the seam to join the second fabric one eighth of an inch from the first. This felt strange at first, like working back to front. The second fabric is hidden under the first, whereas I would normally position it on top.

Which all resulted in this:

 

fine line pieced, quilted, labelled and bound: one placemat.

I'm linking this to:

                 

   Click on the buttons to see more scrappy progress.

Keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly.

Purple Snap Scrap

Purple is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of the month.

 

I posted a photo of my beads blocks earlier in the month, but here are my ten Snap Scrap blocks for August:

 

and here are all my Snap Scrap blocks so far:

 

 4 months Scrap Snap - provisional layout.

You can read more about them here.

That's all the purple sewing I've done this month.

Purple beads and more purple sewing

This month's RSC colour is purple. I've made my purple bead blocks:

and made a start on the Scrap Snap blocks from the fabric I had prepared last week:

one block finished

(looks blue here, but really is purple)

For the person who wrote last week that she didn't understand the blocks here is a summary of the process:

the second block in the machine

the next two ready to sew

the box of parts still to go

The blocks are made from the partly assembled units in the box. Each month there are ten finished blocks in the colour of the month, and each block has a different layout of the parts.

I sewed the first block as leaders and enders while making the bead blocks, which is why the second block, although nearly finished, is still under the needle. Next time I start sewing it will be the leader into the next seam. For more on leaders and enders check here.

I'm linking to:

     

and at the weekend to:

     

Click on the buttons to visit.

Happy sewing

Stay happy and healthy

Marly.

It's a purple August

Angela at soscrappy has chosen purple for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour this month.

No sewing in purple yet, but I've cut the purple pieces for the Scrap Snap quilt.

The first part of making the blocks each month lends itself very well to being leaders and enders, so that is how these will be sewn together.

I'm linking to

Click the button to see more scrappy progress this week.

Stay safe and healthy

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.

Beekeeper cardigan finished

 

This is my second finish in the first quarter FAL of 2019.

Beekeeper cardigan: pattern by Marie Green of Olive Knits on Ravelry

This pattern was presented in the summer of 2018 as a Knit Along. I didn't see it until the first finishes appeared on Instagram. After I bought some Double Knitting wool in the sale at Ribbles in Leiden I decided to buy the pattern. By then the KAL was long finished.

It looks like a complicated pattern but once I'd knitted the swatch I had the pattern in my fingers and it was plain sailing. The wonderful thing about knitting top down is that once you've finished knitting all that's left to do is block it and wear it! No sewing parts together, which, although not difficult, is a bit of a let down after the euphoria of finally casting off!

I actually finished about ten days ago, but forgot to post! (again!)

I'm linking up to Wendy's Quilts and more for the Peacock party

and shall link up to 

at the beginning of April

Happy sewing

Marly.

More purple for my rainbow

This week I made two more paper-pieced blocks in purple for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela. The patterns for the blocks can be found at the blog "Sewn by Leila", along with an excellent foundation paper piecing tutorial.

This first one was going to be purple with yellow, but I got distracted while cutting and cut a third pair of yellow triangles. Not wanting to waste them the block became yellow with purple! I like the result.

 

As I didn't find this QAL until February and hadn't made any of these blocks in January, I also made a blue block.

Further this week my sewing endeavours have focussed on preparing  my "Rainbow Bears' Square Dance" for quilting. It's now layered so hopefully will be finished this month as that's my goal for the month.

I'm linking to

so pop in over there to see more purple goodies.

Happy sewing

Marly.

The colour purple

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month Angela has given the colour purple. I have made the Squared Away sampler block for February twice. It amazes me how wide the range of purple is. I'm planning to make 20 10" blocks which I think will make a good size for a lap quilt.

There was very little more purple sewing here this week; I've been piecing the backing (!!) for my 2016 scrappy rainbow and there are two or three purple pieces in it. That's come to a halt because I ran out of the fabric I'm using for the border of the backing. I miscalculated how wide it should be so soon I shall have a lot of royal blue to cut off. Meanwhile I don't have enough for the fourth side so I'm all set to visit the LQS this afternoon. No pictures yet; I'll post them when I've finished it.

I'm linking up to 

 as soon as the link comes online,

so pop in there to see more scrappy purple.

Happy sewing

Marly.

February is purple!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge entails using scraps of a given colour for one month, and then moving on to another colour. Around the first of the month Angela gives a new colour. Last month it was blue, and this month we've moved on to purple.

The February block in the Squared Away sampler was just released this morning so this week I used purple in two block-of-the-week projects.

Firstly in the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild's sampler:

The final deadline for sharing progress on this project is tomorrow, and there are already finished quilts posted on Instagram #dutchmqgmaakteenblokjeperweek . Needless to say mine is not among them; I still have a few more blocks to make. I will, however, be able to show how the layout will be, even though it is incomplete.

Secondly, I used purple in my block in an open online project: "The Year of Scrappy Triangles" hosted by Leila. The project started in October, so I'm joining really late; this week saw the release of block 17, and I made block number 1!

Year of Scrappy Triangles block 1

The great thing about this is that all the triangles are foundation pieced. What! foundation-pieced!!! I dislike (to put it mildly) foundation piecing. I've had such bad experiences with foundation-piecing in the past (like using far too much fabric; wasting more than actually went into the piece) that I decided I needed regular practice. While surfing the Internet a couple of days ago I came across this project and read Leila's excellent tutorial, which I recognised as giving exactly the support I needed. This first block went together very smoothly with no nasty surprises. That is quite a boost!

I recommend this tutorial to anyone who finds foundation-piecing problematic and frustrating, and what better way to get the necessary practice than to make (at least) one FPP block a week?

I'm linking to 

Click on the button to visit Soscrappy 

and see more lovely scrappiness.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Star Light, Star Dark finished

This is my variation of Star Light, Star Dark from the QAL at Quilty Habit last summer.  The challenge was to use only three colours, six or seven fabrics in light tones and six or seven in dark.
I finished the piecing quite quickly, but when I got to that point I still hadn't decided on the quilting designs. The only thing I was clear about was that it needed doing in two halves to be joined later. (On 1 October last year I showed this in more detail)

I started with the dark half and tried to use a different quilting motif in each section. Each section has six or seven different fabrics and I wanted to use a different motif on each.

The centre star (yellow) was done with the walking foot, and having only half a quilt to turn the whole time was a Godsend.

square stippling in the big star; dot-to-dot from Angels Walters surrounding it; orange peel shapes in the centre of the friendship star; stippling surrounding it; baptist fan centre right; vine with leaves top left

The green section went OK too, though admittedly with a few wobbles. Then I tried doing feathers in the large dark purple star. What a disaster! I just can't backtrack, so there was such a build up of thread along the spine of the feathers I thought, "this bird would never get off the ground!"

Then I decided that there was only one thing for it - unpicking all the feathers - which took me every evening for a week. Then I tried swirls, after all I would only have to follow the motif of the print. No! What a mess! Fortunately this time I decided after just a couple of minutes that it had to go. Out it all came! Totally disheartened by my failures in the dark half of the quilt I moved onto the light section until I got distracted by Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt. That was in November! That was how it stayed for more than half a year.

Matrix rays from Leah Day in the big star; dot to dot from Angela Walters surrounding it; McTavishing top left

Until two weeks ago when I thought of Leah Day and all her online FMQ videos. That dark purple fabric wouldn't stand another unpicking session so I needed something simple and foolproof. I chose Matrix Rays, and the quilting was finished in no time. All that remained was to join the two halves and then a lot of hand sewing to cover the join on the back, and to sew down the binding.

Square Flower from Lori Kennedy in the centre of the dark purple friendship star

I was pleased with how this square flower turned out. I quilted square flowers in all three purple Friendship Stars, but this one turned out best. In the green F.Stars I quilted orange peels, and in the yellow spirals.

McTavishing in the big star; fantasy leaves surrounding it; more McTavishing in the freehand drawn heart (!!); string of beads bottom left (from Pinterest: origin unknown)

In the light purple block I used more McTavishing;  I used this quilting style three times in this quilt. So much for using a different motif on each fabric. I really found it hard to come up with enough quilting motifs.

Fabric: assorted fat quarters and scraps
Thread: Aurifil 40 wt. in matching colours
Wadding: cotton as supplied at my LQS
Size: 1.75m x 1.27m (69" x 50")

Finally one more photo to show why all the photos were taken indoors this afternoon.

I draped it artistically over the bench, took two steps back and took a photo just as the wind caught it. As I live on the ninth floor I didn't want the wind carrying it away altogether: I'd never catch up with it!

I'm linking up to

so go over there and see more of this week's finishes.

Happy sewing

Marly.

From 9-patches to Wonky Stars

Each month Angela at soscrappy gives a colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and this month's colour could be the rainbow itself. It's multi-coloured scraps of fabric in this month's challenge. I've passed on this one, as I have very few multi-coloured fabrics, and they don't qualify as scraps.

Instead I've been trying to catch up on the previous months with purple:

and red:

wonky star blocks.

These started with the nine patches I made in February and March, to which I added more coloured squares and the white wonky stars. My plan is to continue using the colour of the month to make eight more 14" blocks this year. I hope to keep repetition of fabrics within the block to a minimum, but supplies are limited - 48 different fabrics in one colour is asking a lot!

Right after my last post I finished the red scrap basket, which now contains my red scraps.

Pattern from Fiona at Bubz Rugz.
Measurements:
height:  7.75"
base:     7"x 8"

Talking of scraps, which we do every Saturday in the RSC link-up, on 8 April I attended a lecture and a workshop by Jen Kingwell. Yes really, the Australian diva of scraps visited my home town in the little old Netherlands to intoduce a group of some 20 interested ladies from all over The Netherlands to her way of working, and especially to her pattern "Utah".

Most of Jen's quilts are sewn entirely by hand, and the Utah units are no exception: within the units all seams are curves which I've decided are easier done by hand, but I shall be joining the resulting 4" squares by machine!

Jen Kingwell pointing out the details of her quilt "Halo"

The lecture included a guided tour round her quilts which were on display in the exhibition area. Hearing first-hand what the inspiration was and how they all came together was truly inspiring. I am writing a post on the exhibition and my progress with the "Utah" blocks (of which this is an extract) and will publish it in a few days.

I'm linking to

   and  

so pop in there to see more delightful scraps.

Happy sewing

Marly.