i have a few things to say about PINK:

#1: i think i say this about many of the colors (like red, blue, green and brown) but HOW DID I GET SO MUCH PINK?

#2: i have 12 shoo fly and donut blocks done. looking at them  now, i much rather prefer the shoo fly blocks, but the donut blocks use more of my 3" squares... 

#3- i made 2 wonky star blocks (1 more than i intended) a 5x5 and a 4x4. after i had made the first (bigger) block, i got to looking and thinking about the pile of pink squares i put back in my drawer, and decided that i should make another pink wonky stars block to use at least one of each, different pink square. 

also, i really like the random, offset quilt layouts, so at the end of the year i should have a variety of wonky stars to make into an interesting top. 

 #4: all waffle blocks are done. 4 in the dark (with brown sashing) and 4 in the pink, with the LV squares. interestingly, with all my pink squares, i was short on pink yardage and had to scrounge a bit, and be a little creative in both my choosing and cutting. 

and of course, after cutting pink rectangles for these waffle blocks,  i was left with some scraps. which get cut into 3" squares, and HERE WE GO AGAIN! 

#5: fully planning on sewing along with Full Stop; just haven't had the time yet. i have an idea {plan} how i'm going to do it, and it will be just a bit different then all the other ones out there, too, as well as use some yardage along the way. can't wait to get started on this one! (which will be my last new RSC21 project for this year) 

also: huge shout out and THANK YOU to Suzanne of MA. she told me about the facebook group UFO BINGO, and i've already made my list and jumped in. i'm looking forward to becoming familiar with more quilty friends, AND getting some of those UFOs knocked off. 

click on over to soscrappy and see all the other RSC projects starting to take off! 

SOLVED: a mystery of squares, waffles and scraps... (and a fluffy cat for good measure...)

i had an old, vintage suitcase that was my mothers. when i first began RSCing in 2014, i stored all my 3" squares in there.

it seemed to be quite adequate. the squares were neatly stacked according to color. every month i would dutifully cut up some scraps from my sewing (clothes, other quilts, dresses ect...) and add them to the suitcase. (which was, of course, artfully displayed in my sewing room) 

over time it got quite full, and comfy, and Darling Millie could be found napping in the suitcase of squares. 

and the suitcase was so full, and pretty soon the squares were a bit jumbled. i tried (i really did!) to use more and more squares, and make more and more quilts. believe it or not, i finally used so many squares in quilts for MCC, S2W (our church sewing group) and my family that now the squares fit in one of my sliding baskets that i use for storage in my sewing room.  (yay, me!) 

however, most folks know that i really enjoy sewing with scraps, so i get lots of bits-n-bobs passed along to me at regular intervals. along with my regular sewing, and the scraps that i generate myself, i keep the square situation at full capacity, despite being pretty dedicated about cutting my scraps and moving them into the drawer, then into blocks and quilts. 

 

but this year, i decided i should think of some more blocks that take EVEN MORE squares. waffle blocks have been gaining popularity. and look how many SQUARES  they use! 15! in one block!

and: if i do an "opposite" block, i could use 10 more squares! that's 25 squares for one RSC color! furthermore, (i'm an oldest child; i really can't help being an overachiever) if i do 4 blocks a month, that's 50(!!!) squares! 

woohoo! yay, me, again...

so, i kept myself busy in the sewing room, making some pink waffle blocks, and cutting the brown strips for each block. (i chose brown because #1: it was in my stash, and #2: i read somewhere that brown is a good blender)

but after thinking some more (and taking another look at my squares drawer) i saw that i had lots of low volume 3" squares. i made 2 quilts in RSC17 that used lots of squares, and i still had *too many* of the LV squares. 

so i said to myself ("self", i says to meself) what if i make *even more* waffle blocks, and use the LV squares and the color of the month? that will use lots of squares, right? 

so i got out the stack of 3" LV squares from the drawer, and after doing the math for a lap size donation quilt (which of course, i actually did wrong, and will end up with enough blocks for a quilt to cover a small nation... math is not my strong point...) i started sorting into piles enough of the LV squares to make my desired # of blocks for the year. (which is 50, give or take 7 gabillion). 

the small pile below was what was left, and i was still a few blocks short. there was not enough variety in these squares; i needed some more scrappiness... 

 

so i dug through my stash again (a bit deeper this time) and came up with some more LV prints, and ran them through my Studio2 cutter with the 3" die, and got enough blocks to finish what i was working on. 

AND THIS IS WHAT WAS LEFT OVER!!! so now, i have a stack of leftovers, that's bigger than my stack of leftovers that i had almost used up. 

and that, dear friends, is that MYSTERY solved. why do we never run out of scraps? i present the obvious, solid evidence of why not: we're always sewing and creating, we're always making scraps. and since we have scraps, we'll just keep sewing and creating, right? 

a quilty snack: {shoo fly} PIE, DONUTS and WAFFLES!

there is something exciting and even exhilarating about starting a new year of Rainbow Scrap Challenge! new fabric! new colors! new project! new blocks! 

i'm starting off strong with pinks: first up, a twinkly star. scrappy AND wonky. i've not done one of these blocks before, so i'm looking forward to a colorful year. 

*** edited to add: does anyone know of a UFO Finish-along for 2021? Like the kind where you pick 12 projects, and then a number is drawn each month to let us know which UFO to work on? Judy used to do them ages ago, but hasn't for a few years. I know Connie is doing a Dirty Dozen, but that's already started. i love to work along with other quilters- the "pressure" and "accountability" work really well for me. thanks in advance! ***

 

i have done LOTS of 9 patches over my RSC career (this is my 8th year sewing along!!!) i did mention before that this year i intended to "kick it up a notch" so to speak, and include some triangles with my blocks. 

i have a Studio2 cutter (highly recommend) and i've had the 3" square die cutter for a while. i recently purchased (on sale; BOGO) the 2½" finished triangle die to pair with my squares. 

i had a grey piece of yardage come through my sewing room, and i snagged it for my RSC21 donuts and {shoo fly}pie blocks. i cut up enough squares and triangles to keep me piecing these quilty snacks for awhile. no rhyme or reason (or plan) on which i'll piece, or how many. it just depends on how many of each color square i have. i've completed 6, of these 2 different blocks, but still have about 8 more to piece. i don't know where all the pink blocks/fabrics came from... (there were A.L.O.T.) it's a mystery! 

another new-to-me block for RSC21 is the waffle block. Millie, our darling cat, loves quilts + sunshine.  the sewing room is a win/win for her! more on my waffles in another post... 

as i mentioned, this is my 8th year (!!!) i started out with Angela and RSC in 2014. so many 3" squares, so many blocks, so many quilts have gone under my needle and out the sewing room door in that time. 

but still the scraps and squares persist! (not complaining, just explaining, as my MIL would have said) i guess i have made some progress in the last few years- the above pictures are my "stash" of the 3" squares; they overflowed their suitcase into a deeper drawer at one time. (more on that suitcase later, too...) 

this metal drawer is the shallowest of my wire storage units, and with the addition of waffle blocks to my RSC21 plans, i managed to *use* nearly *all* of my Low Volume blocks. but, with that, i THINK I SOLVED THE MYSTERY OF OUR SCRAPS, AND WHY WE ALWAYS HAVE MORE. 

that's a post for another day, and i'll be back soon to tell that story!