Saturday 4 July 2015

RSC 15: week 27: Mid-year review

 To all my friends in the US:
Happy 4th July!

To the rest of the world:
Enjoy the Day! 

Here we're having a heatwave (yesterday was the hottest day EVER), and the Tour de France is about to start in Utrecht. The heat will not be a problem for the cyclists who are used to these kind of temperatures, but the spectators will be hard pressed to find a cool place to stand. I hope everyone goes well-prepared.

And now out of the sunshine and into the Rainbow!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge is hosted by Angela at Soscrappy, who gives a different colour each month and many quilters concentrate on using that colour for the whole month. Some make blocks of  their own choosing, but Angela also publishes block patterns to use in a sampler quilt.

This is an overview of my Sawtooth Star sampler blocks so far. They are in a random order here.

All stars in the night sky in a random layout

I'm not happy with the two on the right of the top row. In January the colour was dark blue, and when you have a dark blue background dark blue stars pose something of a problem, don't you agree? As Angela's background is neutral I decided on neutral stars, but now I'm wondering if I should remake them in a medium blue, like Royal or Kingfisher. What do you think?

Green and yellow in the final layout.

This is as far as I've got with the alternate blocks which take their colour from the adjacent star blocks (great design: not my idea, but Angela's). So far I only have one pair of adjacent colours: yellow and green and I'm really pleased with how this is turning out. Below yellow will be orange, so the second half of the block between the two yellow stars will be orange. (If that doesn't make sense look here on Pinterest; you'll need to scroll right to the bottom.) Above the green will be blue, but I'm going to have to do some rearranging of my blue stars first.

This month's colour is red, and I haven't made any red sampler blocks yet, but I have made 3 hexagon flowers:

two added to the pile
and one already sewn into the top.
The hexagons are all made from scraps, at least 2.25"square, but for this red one there wasn't enough of just one fabric. This project started during my holiday last year as a "take away project", but this week I've been working on it at home. Sitting in the sun on my balcony, I made a start on joining the blocks. There aren't nearly enough for a quilt, but I'll just keep going: there's no deadline, and the little scraps keep coming!

I shall be linking up to 

RSC 15

so hop over there and have a look at all the rainbow progress this year.

Happy sewing

Marly.

16 comments:

Chantal said...

Your RSC2015 quilt looks so good. I really love the darker background. If it was my quilt, I would keep the neutral star but add the Royal blue one. I love quilts that have some blocks that almost disappear in the background. It makes my eyes look for it. Anyway, just saying. Enjoy the process. ;^)

Glinda ♥ said...

Beautiful stars :)

Vireya said...

Hope you are managing to stay cool!

Your stars look great with the dark background. And Angela's layout is brilliant!

Dasha said...

Your RSC progress is looking great all lined up like that. I would leave off remaking blocks - wait until the end of the challenge. You may find that once its all together you will be pleased with the layout. There will be time at the end of the year to make another block if it still worries you.

Christine B said...

Hello Marly! Your quilt blocks are looking fabulous and those little hexagon blocks are so pretty! :) x

Soma @ inkTorrents.com said...

The stars and the hexies look beautiful. I think you could leave the neutral stars, but stars in medium blue probably will look more vibrant with rest of your star blocks. Hope you are staying indoors and cool.

-Soma

Val's Quilting Studio said...

Hey Marly. I like the layout in your final green yellow picture!!

LA Paylor said...

the color squares joining the blocks is just wonderful. I love that! Now I've seen three ideas today I would like to try sometime. Oh there is just not enough time to do it all! Marley I wouldn't change a thing... there should be some high contrast and some low contrast to keep it interesting, right?

LEeAnna

gayle said...

Those stars really shine on that dark ground.
I agree with Dasha - there's plenty of time to decide if you need to replace the stars. Unless you really want to make those blue stars... 8)

Mari said...

I really love the blue background color you've chosen. Everything looks so pretty against it. I like the neutral stars just fine. Maybe if there is another dark color you could use neutrals for those stars, too, and that would distribute them around the quilt. It looks great as is, but whatever you decide is sure to look great!

scraphappy said...

I would not be too quick to remake the blocks. There is still plenty of time before the end if the year, and you might want to make other adjustments when you start to see them come together. The green next to the yellow is fabulous! I can really start to see the pattern emerging.

Ruth said...

Love all that colour! I'd wait until you have the rest of the blocks made and they might work into them ok. If you still dislike them you could remake them then?

Deb A said...

I agree with the others on waiting to make the royal blue block. I believe there is one more blue month so you can decide then =).
Your hexie flowers are lovely. Such great projects. Keep cool and hope your heatwave breaks soon.

Jennifer said...

your RSC sampler is looking great! I need to get working on mine... I'm a bit behind.

Sheila said...

Beautiful prints, colors and blocks. I love stars.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Kingfisher and/or Royal or maybe one of each . . . good idea! I would certainly keep the others just in case . . .