Scrappy 2015!

Happy New Year! I have been seeing everyone's New Year blogs and wrap ups from 2014 and have been pondering what 2015 has in store for my quilting. This orange peel quilt was made completely from my scraps and is my favorite finish from 2014 even if it involved curves (I usually avoid curves!). Twenty years ago this month, I started quilting! Of course being a quilter for 20 years means I have developed quite a fabric stash--with over flowing scrap bins. My focus this year will be working with what I have on hand--scraps, stash, and UFOs.

I have decided to join in on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015 more information can be found here http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/p/rsc12.html or on my sidebar. January's color is blue--regular blue, not navy or turquoise. Here is my blue scrap bin all over my cutting table--I have plenty of blues to work from! 

I cannot remember who made this gorgeous quilt top, but I put a picture of it on my Inspiration board (if anyone knows who made this let me know and I will give them credit and link to their blog)

and I made a purple version in the spring of 2014. I will make blocks for a rainbow version or maybe even two of them each month. This quilt could work for a baby or be made bigger for a lap sized quilt and I can easily quilt it on my Pfaff.

Here are my blue blocks I made yesterday and this morning- I am calling them Medallion Log Cabin blocks. I am using Kona white because I know I can get more than I have on hand if needed, but I do have a few yards already. 

Here are the directions I developed for making these Medallion Log Cabin blocks:

 Here are the pieces and their cut sizes in inches. The color portion of the block requires 2.5 inch wide pieces and the white/background portion uses 1.5 inch wide pieces which gives the blocks a curved look.

 This is the block layout with the pieces.

 Step 1 sew the 1.5 x 2.5 inch background to the 2.5 inch colored square. Of course since we are quilting, you need to use a quarter inch seam for all sewing and press all the seams toward the outside of the block.

 Step 2 add the 1.5 x 3.5 inch background rectangle to the bottom of the Step 1 unit.

 Step 3 add the 2.5 x 3.5 inch colored rectangle to the right side of the block.

 Step 4 add the 2.5 x 5.5 inch colored rectangle to the top of the block.

 Step 5 add the 1.5 x 5.5 inch background rectangle to the left side of the block.

Step 6 add the 1.5 x 6.5 inch background rectangle to the bottom of the block. Make four of these and   put them together to form the block, Medallion Log Cabin.

These are not my blocks, but they are my inspiration! This is the perfect design for some of those odd ball scraps that will not go with much else.

Next up, I have been admiring Kathy's Carrie Nation blocks all 2014. Here are some of Kathy's scrappy rainbow blocks http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrappy-challenge-review.html

and here is a link to how to construct the blocks 

http://grandmotherschoice.blogspot.com/2013/02/25-carrie-nation-quilt.html 

Yesterday, I made a couple with bright blue blocks

and a couple with country blues.

 These whirling geese blocks were featured on So Scrappy as an option for people participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge here is the link http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2015/01/rsc15-sampler-block-1-whirling-geese.html. I made a bright blue and a country blue block and will probably build samplers from them.  There is a linking party from So Scrappy that has plenty of inspiration that I am linking with here http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2015/01/scraphappy-saturday.html

 Onto a UFO project, this is my Sugar Stars designed by Lori Holt. I got Kona navy for the background (I special ordered a bolt at Joann's using a 50% off coupon--the only way to buy solids) and I am using mostly Marmalade prints from Moda's Bonnie and Camille. I made these blocks during the summer on my Featherweight while stitching with my mom and Lindsey. The blocks have been sitting on sewing machine cabinet gathering dust.

I am laying them out on my guest bed/design board and I plan on sewing them together this afternoon and evening while watching the NFL Playoffs. Then, it will go into the flimsy UFO pile awaiting quilting. I want to start getting my backings together for those, so I will have no excuses for not using my mom's longarm. 

 I have been Slow Stitching all week on my Journey of the Quilter during movies with my family and hanging out with my mom and dad. I am just stitching around each piece with DMC blanc perle cotton #8. 

It is finally cold and we have snow on the ground here in western Colorado, so it is Slow Sunday Stitching weather and I will be joining everyone else at Kathy's link up tomorrow and getting further on this while watching football. Here is a link to the Slow Sunday Stitching http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com