Rainbow Stars and Stripes Quilt

My scrap challenge has proved to be a useful motivator for starting projects I've been meaning to get around to, simply so I can maximize my scraps, and this idea had been floating around awhile. After I took apart the dragonfly quilt, I knew I wanted to repurpose the fabric, but I was limited by the shape of the scraps. Fortunately I was able to create a nice pattern with what I had to work with.

While I always like the look of quilts with a lot of white in photos, I was nervous about how one would turn out in real life, but I am really pleased with the results. I considered quilting with colored thread, but I'm glad I didn't, though I think this is the first quilt I've ever quilted with white thread.

I was pleased to finally find a use for this great multi-colored striped fabric for the back, as well as the orange batik dots for the binding, though I barely made a dent in the batik.

A close-up of the fabrics

New items purchased to complete this quilt: batting, though I should probably count the solid white fabric as well, because I can't remember why I bought it in the first place

Finished size: 39" x 52"

Always and Forever Anniversary Cards

Anniversary cards for my parents and Zack's grandparents.

Scrap Challenge

I have wanted to make another scrap quilt for awhile now - my first scrap quilt is one of my most used quilts - but it took me a long time to settle on a design. The blocks from my Quilt Block Project are never going to become a quilt (I've actually taken several apart) as they just weren't color coordinated enough, but the fabric I was planning to use for the backing will make a great backing for a different scrappy quilt!

I've decided on not one, but three different scrappy layouts, and we'll see 1) how many scraps I have and 2) how many quilt tops I can finish by the end of the year.

The designs I've chosen are:

• The Arkansas Crossroads quilts, pictured here. This will likely be the third one I start since it requires the most solid fabric. I may also end up using this design for a non-scrap quilt.
• A modified version of the Scrap Vomit/Technicolor Yawn, also pictured at the same link. I plan to use solids only for the ring of 8 squares pictured in blue for maximal scrappiness, but I might have enough to do those in scraps as well.
• Another modified version of a scrap vomit quilt, which also looks like an Irish chain.

 I've already starting cutting 2.5" squares from my boxes of small scraps:

I have no idea how many there are at this point, but based on the number and size of the piles, I'm going to guess at least 600. I will need at least 1800 for the two scrap vomit layouts, so we'll see how many squares my larger scraps yield. Each layout will have 20 blocks, so I don't want more than 20 squares of any one fabric per quilt. My first scrap quilt used 4.5" squares. It's remarkable how many of those fabrics I still have scraps of nearly 15 years later!