August is usually red hot in our part of the world

So it is a good thing that Jen picked red/orange for this month's rainbow colour challenge. Last month with the green's I had a little difficulty with my value selections so I tried the black/white edit button on my iPad to see if I hit the mark a little better this month. These are my four pieces dark, two medium's and a light. I believe I am getting closer.

And here are my blocks in all their  summer glory.

I have continued to make a 12" and a 6" block each month. And for a wee spoiler alert, Jen has a few setting options that will crop up towards the end of this event that are different, interesting and manageable for all levels of quilters. 

Make certain to visit Jen's blog (here) for the free instructions for this month. And while you are there have a look around if you have not done so already. She offered a series of free Mug Rugs last year and those patterns are still available. 

In September she is launching The Border Quilt Quilt Along. You will need to purchase the pattern to participate in this quilt along. The introductory post is up on her blog already. The Quilt Along was to start earlier but there was a shipping delay for the fabric so you have an extra month to get ready. I tested the pattern for this one for her a while ago. I pretty much hate adding borders but this one is interesting. Each round is a different border style. So nice to have someone else work out all the Math so all you have to do is cut and sew. I highly recommend you consider participating.

Remember to visit the blogs of the other participants for the Rainbow Colour Challenge. If you have been following along you know that several of the other members of the group are offering free patterns on their blogs. 

Piecefully, Joanne

Here is Sherry's list of participating bloggers. I have difficulty understanding the html information. I hope you don't mind that I "borrowed" your set of links. 

Jen Shaffer of Patterns By Jen
Jen Strauser of Dizzy Quilter
Sherry Shish of Powered By Quilting 
Jen Rosin of A Dream and A Stitch
Nancy Scott of Masterpiece Quilting
Dione Gardner-Stephen of Clever Chameleon Quilting
Joanne Harris of Quilts by Joanne

It isn't easy being yellow-green

It's the first of the month, again, and we have a new colour for July. One that I will freely admit I have difficulty working with. Kermit the Frog used to tell us it wasn't easy being green. I might amend that to say it's not easy for me to pick out green.
I suspect we all have colours that we struggle with. Mine are found on the warm side of green. I am good with the cool side of green but get me into lime green or olive green I am never just exactly certain if I have it "right".

And further to that almost apology I am fairly confident that I missed the light medium and dark on this month too.Or maybe my back drop is overpowering.
Once again I found my Bloc-Loc rulers handy. They have a set for Flying Geese. Be certain to visit Jen at patterns by Jen (here) to obtain your next pattern and to find the links for the other participants.
It is a great block this month that goes together quickly. Once you have your fabric selections made you will put it together in no time. I trust you are keeping up. We are midway through 2018. How did that happen. They always said that the older you get the faster time went and I think someone recently did a study to find out why. I don't really need to know why, it just does.
For for my Canadian friends Happy Canada Day. It is looking like this one is going to be mighty hot in our part of the country.
Piecefully, Joanne

Pretty in Purple, Lovely in Lavender

jen has created another lovely block for us this month. And the colour is purple. So many little girls seem to like purple better than pink these days. Did Frozen have anything to do with that? I will freely admit that with two Grandsons I have limited access to little girls and their opinions.
So here is my block. As you can see it is a simple block that does not take long to put together once the components are stitched. I was trying for an "arty" shot with the blocks lying on the Heather we have growing at the front of the house but the Heather is on its way out for this year.

The first photo I took of the blocks was in very early morning light and somewhat in the shade. I am adding this to show what a difference lighting can make to your pictures.

This one looks more like blue and something faded. I am still learning a lot about taking photos.

Be certain to visit Jen  at Patterns by Jen (here) to get your free pattern. With June starting we are halfway through 2018. I hope you are keeping up and building your own rainbow. And while you are looking around make certain you visit the other members of the Rainbow Crew. Several of whom are offering their own free patterns. Piecefully, Joanne

Am I blue?

July's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is blue. I just finished this blue bento box for my brother. It is a lap size quilt approximately 45" square. It was started at a workshop in May so it did not take long to complete.
As to what else I have been doing. I am able to cross an event off my bucket list. I went on a bus trip with the Kincardine Sunset Quilt Guild to the Vermont Quilt Festival. No it was not a bus trip on my list, it was the Vermont Festival. The timing has always been an issue. So this year I made it. We had a great trip with stops at Keepsake Quilting in New Hampshire and an overnight stay and dinner in Scholarie New York,  where I met blogger Sharon Vrooman of Vrooman's Quilts. Her Mom gave an after dinner trunk show that was wonderful. Sharon did a blog post on our visit. Piecefully, Joanne

Perhaps 50% yellow will count

I was given a baggie of 1 1/2" yellow squares andsome 1 1/2" strips. The next questions was what to do with them. I have always wanted to try the Bento box design and Tracy Brookshier's revised pattern has directions for creating the block using 1 1/2" strips. So I used up some of the small squares andsome of the strips. I had all kinds of blue. This little quilt is roughly 24" by 30". I still had all kinds of yellow squares and not as many strips so I have started working on the same size block but more of them to make a larger quilt.
I attended an "official" Bento box workshop this week after making my first little one and was rather disappointed. The instructor only had one sample and it only showed one variation. The revised pattern gives cutting directions for 5 different sizes of strips and shows several different lay outs.
My trunk show in Kincardine went well and they asked if I would do a workshop next year. I said as long as it wasn't in the winter I would do one. Winter driving in our area can be awful or even impossible. The Hwy that goes through our town is the one that is closed most often during the winter months.
I am really hoping that once we get through the next month or so that I can get back to some more regular sewing sessions. I miss them.  Joanne

Beginning to see a little red

I have spent a lot of time with red fabric this month. These are the sample blocks for the Community Outreach afternoon we had earlier this week. I cut up miles of red fabric and more miles of white fabric. The fabric was then subcut into 5" squares and 2 1/2" strips. On outreach afternoon. A couple of sewers made HST with red and white. Another person made red and white four patches. We had a couple of people pressing, then some others squaring blocks. As the afternoon wore on we were able to assemble 10 blocks and have the makings ready for another 18. If I make a few more 4 Patches we probably could make at least 8 more blocks. I will take these to Scrap Bag quilters on Wednesday so the rest of the group can see what we accomplished in a short afternoon of work. Joanne

No pictures today. It has been a busy week with some quilty events. Wednesday was Scrap Bag Quilters. Elaine made the kits for this month and what a treat to just sew for the day and not be "responsible" for anything. I finished my top by lunch time and started a second one which I brought home to finish. Jeanette was out for the first time since October and is happy to have her cancer treatments behind her. I am making good progress on my red rainbow scrap challenge but know that it won't be finished before the end of the month. Tonight we went out to celebrate my husband's not really a birthday event. He is one of those special people born on February 29th so young forever. Our favourite restaurant is on winter hours so it was tonight or later next week. There are a few Mysteries coming up in the next little while so I have been looking through the stash for material suitable for them. I have reached 16 on my 50 quilts from stash challenge so that is coming along also. Hope to have some finishes in the next little while. Joanne

Rainbow Challenge-Blue

This is my first "blue" finish for January. I say "blue" in quotes because there is yellow scattered through the quilt so strictly speaking it is not only blue. I call this a brick friendly block. Each piece is the same size. For this quilt all pieces are 2 1/2" by 4 1/2". The block works for 1 1/2" by 2 1/2" bricks and for 3 1/2" by 6 1/2" bricks. I will be leading a workshop for this block at our Scrap Bag quilters meeting in January. Whoever is leading the workshop prepares kits for the project they are leading. I have made 10 kits and at a minimum of 280 pieces per kit that was a lot of stash busted.