RSC - September - Pastel

"Pastel" is a bit tricky - I don't store my fabrics by tone.....I decided pastel could be pale and I found a few bits and cut a few bits to make 3 placemats

I only made 5 Colourwash blocks.  (1) because I am not sure if they will suit the project I am planning...and (2) it's late in the month and I am running out of time . . LOL

Interesting exercise???
I forgot to crop my picture before I uploaded it - so I decided to give Co-pilot a try! This is the result when instructed to use the focus area and to remove the background.....AI can be very clever.

October is brown & black - although Angela gave a lot of options!

RSC - August - Aqua

The August colour is Aqua.  Although Angela said if Aqua was too hard, do more blues...LOL.

But where does Aqua start & finish . . . and what about Turquoise & Teal??- they are all close on the colour wheel.

I did a bit of googling and found these graphics.  Interesting that both Aqua and Turquoise are "Brilliant bluish green" but Teal is "Moderate bluish green".

Aqua
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#00FFFF
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(0, 255, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(180°, 100%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(91, 72, 192°)
Source	HTML/CSS[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant bluish green
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Turquoise
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#40E0D0
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(64, 224, 208)
HSV (h, s, v)	(174°, 71%, 88%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(81, 59, 179°)
Source	X11
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant bluish green
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Teal
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#008080
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(0, 128, 128)
HSV (h, s, v)	(180°, 100%, 50%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(48, 38, 192°)
Source	HTML/CSS[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Moderate bluish green
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

I also found some general info re colours:


Red: passion, physical energy, warmth, aggression, and danger.
Yellow: happiness, creativity, mental stimulation, impatience, and cowardice.
Blue: calmness, honesty, trust, stability, and responsibility.
Orange: spontaneity, adventure, dynamism, warmth, exhibitionism, and superficiality.
Green: growth, freshness, harmony, prosperity, envy, and greediness.
Purple: spirituality, imagination, mystery, royalty, wisdom, and immaturity.
Pink: unconditional love, sympathy, femininity, comfort, playfulness, and childishness.

Anyway - I raided the stash...not too many precut strips - so I cut a bunch of strips.

I made these at the recent retreat and finished the placemat bindings at home:

4 Placemats

18 Colourwash blocks

Next month is "Pastels"....wonder what I will find to use??

Chookshed Challenge #9 - Fishy Business - Top

My RSC project for 2024 was to make fish blocks with the aim of finishing them for a DV donation quilt.

Wanting it to progress to at least a top stage...I gave it #9 on the Chookshed Challenge list.

The top is finished - I think I have managed to turn some of my fish upside down...so it's a very unregulated school of fish!

It's fate is "under advisement".  My husband thinks it would make a good raffle quilt at his Mens Shed....

Only 3 projects to go - what number will Deanna find for August??

RSC 2025 July - Purple

Purple!!!    An easy colour for me...
I didn't have too many pre-cut strips, so I tackled the purple drawer.  I cut placemat backings, bindings & strips from some older fabrics that I had collected many years ago as part of a subscription to AP&Q.  Then I cut strips from most of the fabrics in the drawer and did a general tidy up.  For once, the drawer is not chock-a-block!!!

I ended up with 6 placemats

and 28 colourwash blocks

Next month is Aqua (I may include teal).

Montana's Quilt - RSC 2023

In 2023 - for RSC - I chose to make I Spy blocks...I made two of each month's colour with the plan that they would be the quilts for the two younger grandchildren when they turned 2.

It is now Montana's turn to get hers...

I found this fabulous Red Tractor fabric at Shelley's at Warwick.   
As Montana has cows in the yard where she lives, it seemed appropriate!

Milo's quilt (very similar) is posted here.

At the moment there are 4 grandchildren and they each have an I Spy quilt.  It's unlikely there will be more...so I will need to start thinking about other quilts for when they are older.

RSC 2025 June - Orange

The colour for June was Orange.  There weren't too many "scraps" in the container, but after a bit of cutting to make scraps, I managed to get enough to make 25 Orange Colourwash blocks, which I made on retreat last week.

and 4 placemats.

Ready for RSC - July . . .what will it be???

Oh!!!   I just checked - Purple!!!    my favourite.

RSC 2025 May - Green

Green is a much easier colour!!!

I found plenty of strips and some wadding - already about 13" wide and it had a green fabric with it - must have been an offcut of a quilt...so I cut that into 4 x 19" long pieces and sewed the strips.  I still have green strips - but a lot less.

While I was sorting the strips,
I was also able to organise the green pieces for the colourwash blocks.

During the "sorting" stage...I found some blue squares and was able to whip up another placemat.  I know it's not green but it can stay in this post.

RSC 2025 April - Red

Red is another colour that I do not have a lot of . . .but I found enough to make 3 placemats

and 20 Colourwash blocks

That will do for now.

Retreat at Glenrose (in the House)

Last year I went to Glenrose (House) with a group of people - some of whom I had sewed with before, some not.
The booking for 2025 had been retained but none of the other ladies were able to go this year, so I took it over and roped in the usual sewing buddies.

The booking is from Thursday at 4PM to Sunday at 2PM, so it's shorter than a "week" booking, but we're always up for a retreat.

I was able to finish the I Spy top for Montana's 2nd Birthday coming up in July.

I joined the wedges for a Christmas tree skirt.  I have a red & green one cut ready to go too - but realise I will need to make the hole in the centre bigger...so can fix that before I sew the other one.

For DV projects, I put this Coin Quilt together (the strips of "coins" had been made & hanging around for a long while).

And I put the borders on this top - which had also been hanging around for a while.

 I had been saving this for a retreat with Helen as she had a nifty way of making the mitered corners....it was quite easy!

Some of the other things that the girls worked on
Maureen made several Crowns for the border of her Chuck Nohara quilt...these are just a few..

Maureen also put together this quilt top for the DV project

Helen made a bag - the fabric is so lovely

and added the borders to this DV quilt top

Sandi made and bound 22 strip-pieced placemats, which I will give to the local Meals on Wheels group. She also experimented with finishing the binding by machine—we decided that using the Ditch foot was the most successful method.

De made another giraffe quilt top - so cute!!!

Lynda put a quilt top together - but I missed getting a photo! 

Both Helen & De made up this Quilters Retreat Panel - all the Needle Girls have one to make up by November.

Here is Helens - no picture of De's 😖

The girls are well-trained and know to save the Teabags so I can collect the strings for Jo.

No retreat would be complete without some retail therapy and there is a new shop in Warwick - so off we went.   I found a new "must have" project, as did most of us....and we spied this cute wall hanging - well, we all like the machine part...maybe not the dingle dangles.
It's a machine embroidery design so I have - of course - purchased it...(Designs by Juju..)

The booking is in place for next year.   But I have a few more retreats this year - one next weekend!!!!!, then June, August & November...I am quite the expert in planning & prepping!

RSC 2025 March - Yellow

Yellow is a hard one for me - I do not have a lot of yellow (or red or orange).  But I raided the strip collection and made two placemats - luckily someone had recently gifted me some fabrics they no longer wanted and there were a few larger yellow pieces so that helped with the backings and bindings of these.

Then I used the left over strips to start on the colourwash blocks.  I had to cut some pieces from my very limited stash of yellow.  I ended up with 24, so it will do for now.

NOTE - UPDATE
The problem I was having where I wasn't getting emails when you comment. seems to have been resolved.,...I am blaming the cyclone!

RSC 2025 February - Blue

I completed 20 blocks for my Colorwash Quilt:

There is a lot more variety in the colours this month . . .amazing what you find when you raid the strip boxes.

Then I made 3 placemats...that got rid of most of the longer blue strips...still short lengths sitting around....

RSC 2025 (Pink) & Chookshed Challenge 2025

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I deliberated about joining RSC again - I've done it a few years and it is great motivation to get some blocks made, . . but do I need yet another project???   NO

So, I decided to combine it with another project and the Colourwash blocks seemed ideal.

Maureen found this idea on You Tube and the plan was to motivate each other to make blocks from our stash....
The quilt on YouTube is finished with 3" squares, and there are probably 400 or so blocks. Ummm. I decided on a 4.5" cut and the total number of squares??? I have no idea yet. It depends on how it pans out, and it may end up as a colourful quilt.

I hadn't planned on any fixed number of blocks for RSC, so I just used what was easy to cut from bits I had "sitting around" ...I ended up with 16 for the first run, but decided to make 20 each month.
I will probably need a lot more for what I have in mind - and I may spread this over two years.

Obviously I tend to buy bright pinks in a similar tone.....but I am sure over time, my pinks will become more varied.

I also have quite a collection of cut strips . . . Previously, I've made string blocks for quilts for donation to DV...and I like to make placemats to donate to the local Meals on Wheels organisation...so I grabbed the pink strips that were long enough and made a simple placemat

Chookshed Challenge

For the Chookshed Challenge, #6 was the project for January, so I combined my RSC Commitment with the Challenge.  Off to a winning start

RSC - August & September

My RSC blocks took a back seat for August.  August colour was Orange - but as Janice pointed out - the September Fishy Business block was to be a little school of goldfish - so it seemed appropriate to use orange for that - that meant I had to wait to hear the September colour before I could do the August blocks.  September RSC challenge colour is "Darks - black & brown".

Confused??

So here is August

And September

I thought it was time to see how they all look together - although there are still 3 more Fishy Business blocks (2 each month) to go.  There are additional squares to be added too.

Just random order. . . no plan yet.

Milo's Quilt - RSC 2023

My grandchildren get an I Spy quilt when they turn 2.
Luka's is here and Peyton's is here

Now it's Milo's turn.

in 2023 - for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I made two blocks of novelty fabrics in each colour with a plan to make these into quilts for Milo and Montana.

Making the blocks was relatively easy - though I had to 'beg" a few fabrics in some colours.  Then I had to add 144 3.5" squares!!!   I have a fairly large collection of novelty fabrics, a friend gave me all of her collection....but I was still struggling to get enough...(remember I was making 2 quilts....)...and I found a lady on Facebook who was selling pre-cut squares, so I purchased a bunch from her.  As I was finishing the quilt, I found a few repeats, so swapped them out....but I stopped looking closely in case I found more!

Although Milo turned 2 in August - he lives in Townsville and I wasn't keen on trusting the quilt to the postal service if I could avoid it.  We are off to Townsville on Tuesday for some Nana & Pa cuddles, so the deadline was set! 

For the backing, I chose an alphabet panel showing various fish and sea creatures (Milo's dad is a keen fisherman) and an indigenous-inspired pattern that looks a bit like waves...(well, in my mind)

The fish panel is "Deep Blue Sea by Stephanie Peterson Jones" 

and includes some questionably named fish....

Cowfish, Lumpfish, IcebBlue Zebra fish, Unicornfish, Rabbitfish,
Quillback rockfish.  I googled them and they really do exist!
(Fortunately)

The backing:

I have less than 12 months to make the second one like this for Montana.  Wonder what I will find for backing for her...her dad is also a keen fisherman.

RSC - July

The end of the month is here….time to post the aqua fish to add to the pond.

Now to check the colour for August…..Orange!

RSC - June

Oops - it is technically July in Australia - so I am late....but in the US it is still June....

My blue RSC fish

and the next month is aqua...I will have to see what I have - I have already delved into the aqua shades to finish one fish...

Happy New Financial Year to all

RSC - May

I am running a bit behind this month....lots to keep me busy including almost a week away on retreat.

But "Done & Dusted" as they say.

These look a little dull, but really are quite bright.
I have quite a school of fish now....but plenty still to do.