Completed three blocks for the RSC15 but not all of them have worked out the way I wanted. Actually they are not even meant to be blue but one light blue and two turquoise. I have one more light blue to do
Here they are, can you spot the mistake 😦
The light blue looks the same as the turquoise ones! – it’s the one on the right of ‘whirling geese’ I think the main problem is the colour of the geese on the outside. Perhaps a little reverse sewing and substitution is called for, like this –
Not sure I like the square in the middle or white geese either! This is the first block that I haven’t really liked much since starting this project so I think it’s best if I put it to one side and carry on with the other colours for now and hope things turn out a bit better!
There are three orange blocks for this section, yesterday I posted the ‘birds in flight’ block and it’s significance. The two blocks today have no significance other than I wanted something simple.
Firstly, a nine patch made from Happy-go-Lucky candy squares by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. I bought these at The Quilters and Embroiderers Store, Brisbane. Camille Roskelly was giving a talk and I bought her book Simply Retro and a few packs of these candy squares. Loved her talk and the quilts she brought with her!
Secondly, another simple patch which I made up. I don’t think it is an old block, at least I couldn’t find it. I was trying to think of a name. As it is an easy variation of a nine patch I thought Easy Kate but that sounds like it is named after a strumpet ha ha. Kate in the corner sounds like a naughty child so I’ll leave it as a nine-patch variation which sounds boring but accurate
The little flower in the middle is from ‘Sweet Things’ by Holly Holderman for Lake House Dry Goods and has the cutest colour chart on the selvedge of cupcakes instead of the usual dots. Another scrap from a scrap bag bought on EBay
Ode to Autumn; ‘Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness’…John Keats.
September’s colour is orange which is very appropriate for those of us in the Northern hemisphere as the trees will soon start their yearly change of clothes before flinging them off altogether.
The blackberries are ripening in the hedgerow in Essex so last Saturday we took the grand-daughters to the nature reserve to go blackberry picking. We should have taken a walking stick to pull down the highest runners which tantalised us with the choicest berries, even so we still managed to pick about three kilos in a couple of hours. That doesn’t include the ones the girls ate!
There were lots of different plants to see; instructions on which ones to avoid – like deadly nightshade, and birds intent on eating the blackberries that we were picking. When we were nearly finished we came to a fork in the path and I started down the left-hand side but my other half, who knew the woods better then me, called me to go right. How glad I am that we did. As we examined one bush he saw a bird fluttering in a particularly dense patch and realise it was trapped! I couldn’t see it at first and when I did I was sickened to see it hanging upside-down, desperately trying to free itself from the thorns
‘I think it’s leg is broken’ he said.
I cringed as I have seen the translucent broken bones in the leg of another bird years ago and didn’t want to see it again but the bird needed rescuing and taking to the Wildlife trust centre. He pushed the tangled thorny runners aside and I reached in through the briars and put my hand around it’s frail, trembling little body. He snapped off the piece that held the bird so I was able to pull it out.
I couldn’t look as he gently pulled the plant apart to free the bird. As he did so the frantic fluttering stopped and the bird waited motionless in my hand; the quivering of it’s heart the only sign that it was still alive. I ventured a look and was relieved to see that it’s leg wasn’t broken after all.
Once it was free, the bird began to struggle again; we called the girls to come and see but only the oldest was quick enough to see the bird as I opened my hand to let it go. It disappeared in seconds and we were all glad that we had taken the right path!
I am so far behind on the RSC15 because I started so late, that I thought I would have a marathon cutting session last night. I am following Angela’s pattern and making sawtooth stars with different middles so a large number of flying geese were needed.
When I came to sew this morning I was a red square short. I was sure I have cut four but it was late so maybe I miscounted. I cut another only to find this when I started to chain piece the second round!
So that’s where it went! I have never done that before – sewed things to myself – but not this!
This morning was very productive, even with a bit a babysitting and a trip to a bootsale. It was a wet and windy last night which put a lot of stall holders off so there were hardly any. My other half got a demi-john for £3.00 but only after I snorted in derision laughed when the stall holder said £5.00! The girls got an animal book and a lovely glass paperweight. With only two patchy rows there was little choice so I got nothing.
I had bought a pair of scissors in Fabric8 (only £2.00!) yesterday which came in handy today as they are so large and I had many geese to separate. Only a couple of snips and they were done.
Now for the inner blocks. January is medium blues; whirling geese and card trick. Let’s hope the weather brightens up as it is a bit dark for taking photos indoors without a flash (and I can’t find my tripod to do a long exposure)
These are the first blocks I have made for the RSC15 as I only came across this challenge recently. Indigo was the colour chosen for August but any other dark colour would do for those without the necessary scraps. I decided that I wasn’t going to use plain white I would use polka dot instead.
The Road to California came first, completed with polka dot
I only had a little of this fabric and was contemplating buying more when I realised the whole point of the scrap challenge was to use up scraps not to make a scrappy quilt! There is a difference! Some buy fat eights to get the scrappy look but that isn’t the point here as that would only make more scraps. So I had a re-think and raided my scrap bag and baskets to find any low volume patterned/white fabric plus some plain old white after all. I love the indigo fabric which was a mere $7AU a metre from the stash builder basket in Spotlight, Brisbane.
The next block, the Bullseye block did have some sizing issues but all was sorted in the end (it comes up as 6 inches square not 6.5). This time a mix of plain white and I think it’s Sarah Fielke’s On The Pond but it’s out of print now
Last of all, and I think my favourite, is Mr Roosevelt’s Bowtie. A block I had never heard of before and for this I used the greatest variety of scraps, five fabrics in all.
Now I think I may have to ‘reverse sew’ the first block as I prefer the mix of background fabrics in the others. I will wait until I have made more blocks first though to see how they work together.
I have made quite a stack of ready cut squares to make the flying geese for the other colours so I hope to catch up soon
I am adding a third challenge to the other two – my own self-imposed “Quilting from Little Things”, and the “Farmer’s Wife 1930s” QAL at the Quilting Board here
The third challenge is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler (RSC15) by Angela over at Soscrappy complete with button to add to your blog. The block is based around a sawtooth star with a different inner block for each star. The colour for August is indigo – a colour I love but actually have very little of. Some blues look indigo until you put them next to each other and some then appear to have a greenish hue.
I couldn’t use Soscrappy’s method of making flying geese as I don’t have the appropriate ruler so I used the second method from Connecting Threads here
They went together easilyand I set to work on the inner square which is the Road to California, which also went together well. The problems arose when I went to join them all – the inner block was bigger than the geese! Measuring the seams of the inner block showed that they were smaller than a quarter inch, hence the block was bigger. A close inspection of my quarter inch piecing foot showed that it was slightly bent inwards! How annoying as I can’t do anything about it until Monday. The foot came with my new sewing machine from Franklins in Colchester so not too far to travel to get a replacement.
I will just have to make notes for the previous squares as the challenge started in January so I have a lot of catching up to do. As I don’t have any completed blocks you can see what they should look like courtesy of Kat Scribner who has a very useful list showing all the blocks completed so far on her blog Scrapbox Quilts
thecraftyyak 