Rhombesque Rainbow

A Rainbow Scrap Challenge finish!  This was my 2016 RSC quilt, and I finally finished it earlier this summer.  It is Kathy Doughty's "Soul Searching" pattern from her book Making Quilts, but I call mine Rhombesque Rainbow, which is a better title than Diamond-Shaped Blocks in the Colors of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I quilted the diamond shapes in straight lines using my walking foot, and inspired by Quilting Jetgirl's circuit board motif, I quilted the neutral background diamonds in a circuit board motif.  That, at least, was my intention; however, my "circuit board" ended up looking like a maze for a fruit fly.  When machine quilting, I always begin quilting too small, so then the machine quilting takes forever, but I practiced my machine quilting, used a lot of scraps, and finished a quilt.  All good. . . . 

Thanks, Angela, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge motivation each month.  I always look forward to the Saturday posts which bring colorful projects from all around the world.

On Ringo Lake

January 13, 2018







OK!  My first Bonnie Hunter mystery--On Ringo Lake!  Nope, I haven't finished yet, and the reveal happened weeks ago, but that's how I quilt--s-l-o-w-l-y.  It has been a fun process though, and I have learned how to achieve better accuracy in piecing with Bonnie's tips. Now, I watch where I place the ruler.  There's another great tip from her--I think I first heard it in a Quilt Cam video--but I was reminded again in this clue. 




I'm not confident in my color choices, but I'm listening again to Bonnie and choosing fabrics in a lot of different ranges.  I began with my scraps, which is what initially brought me into trying this quilt.  I had several aqua/turquoise fabrics that I wanted to use, as well as several pieces of melon/salmon fabric that needed to be gone from my stash.  There were also chocolate brown fabrics to use.  When I realized how much of the fabric I had, I decided to jump in.  Since then, I have bought several fat quarters of all three colors to complete each clue--well, to work toward completing each clue. 


Never before have I cut fabric for an entire quilt without making blocks along the way to see whether I liked the block enough to pursue a finish.  What I have learned is that there are advantages and disadvantages to cutting all the pieces first.  An advantage is, I think, that I will save time when I begin to assemble the blocks.  They will be cut, and I can sit and sew.  Another advantage with this mystery is that I have been able to see alternative arrangements in Bonnie's link, so if I like an alternative better, I can  piece my block like the alternative.  A disadvantage is that if I hadn't liked the final quilt, I would have cut up a lot of fabric just to assemble a quilt fail.  Fortunately, that isn't the case, and I might add that doing a mystery quilt involves taking that risk. 


 Clues 1 and 2 complete and Clue 3 started

The 99K with a string of Clue 3 pieces 

Since these pictures, I've made more progress with ORL, but it will be awhile before I finish.  Can't wait to see how the completed quilt looks--