Saturday, June 30, 2018

Turquoise!

Well, hello! It's been awhile. I've been on vacation, both in real life and in blog life. But I managed to squeeze my RSC18 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018) blocks in during a couple of marathon string sessions before I left. 

I was excited about Turquoise month because I love the color. My collection of turquoise fabrics is not extensive, but I do have more modern pieces than I have of other colors. Can you guess which strip is my favorite in this block? 

Yes, there are modern fabrics, but do you see that dark fabric with the pink flowers? It made its first appearance in my daughter's baby quilt. She's 37 years old now. 

I didn't realize until I started arranging strips how many different colors there are that might be called turquoise/aqua, ranging from minty to bluish. Mmm, I love that yellow strip with the turquoises. 

As usual, I included a strip of a color from each of the other months in my blocks. This month, some colors worked better than others. In this block, the dark blue doesn't stand out as particularly different, so I chose the darkest one I could find so at least there would be value contrast. 

I don't think the sage green worked very well in this block. It's the one with the tiny leaves. After I finished the block, I noticed that two of the other fabrics looked more sagey than turquoise. Strange, because they seemed turquoise/aqua until I included the sage strip. Oh well. In the end it will all just be a colorful mess.
Ooh, orange and turquoise: another fun combination!
And this next block has another tiny shape that I love. 
Here are all my RSC blocks together.

A colorful mess indeed. 

I'll leave you with a few photos from our vacation that feature turquoise. First up, my take-along project: I had fun working on my Lake Michigan quilt in a log cabin by the waters of Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I'm currently adding embroidered beach grass. I got the basic structure of the biggest clump done. Now I have to add more dimension. I'll keep working on this outside on summer evenings.
No, that is not a giant wave--the quilt was lying crooked on the bed.
And here are some photos of the beautiful turquoise waters of Lake Huron during our bicycle ride around Mackinac Island in the Upper Pennisula. The weather was stunning--cool and clear, while back home it was all clouds and rain.  




It's supposed to be hot, hot, hot back here at home this weekend. (Makes me wish I was back Up North, but I guess it will be pretty warm there, too.) Time for some indoor activities. I have a little sewing planned and then catching up on all the quilty posts I missed while I was gone.

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! on Sunday.

This week I wish you colorful surroundings and colorful quilting, scrappy or otherwise.

19 comments:

JanineMarie said...

I've been away from Blogger long enough not to know whether or not they have fixed the notifications issue. So I'll be the first to comment here to see if I can get notified of any of your comments. Crossing my fingers that I won't have to jump through hoops to get back to you.

Mari said...

I love your vacation pictures! And the strings, too, of course, but Lake Michigan looks so wonderful. I miss the Great Lakes. I love the strings. I'm thinking of making a turquoise and orange quilt, so I'm especially fond of that little block.

JanineMarie said...

Well, silly me, I forgot to hit "Notify me."

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I've yet to make a string quilt...you've inspired me to relook at my scraps....so glad you enjoyed such a beautiful vacation. :) :)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

very pretty were you were vacationing at! love that arch.
the turquoise and other blue colors are great.

Linda said...

Your RSC blocks look wonderful - I enjoyed seeing them up close and reading about what the fabrics mean to you. Love your beach quilt! All the scenery is so pretty - think you'd like to live up north?

The Joyful Quilter said...

A beautiful mess? Sounds like as good a name for the quilt anything else! LOL Thanks for including your vacation pictures. LOVE that one of the natural bridge with the water beyond!!!

Kaja said...

The clever thing about your strings is that strip of a different colour in each one. When you look at them all together those bits hold the whole group together beautifully.

Julie in GA said...

Your string blocks are fabulous! I love the contrast strips you included. Thanks for sharing the close-ups of each block--so nice to get a good look at the fabrics. Great vacation photos too!

Marly said...

Such a simple, yet totally effective block and they are absolutely beautiful all together. You certainly had perfect weather for your bike ride.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

That picture of all your string blocks together is wonderful! I love them, especially your idea to put one of the other colors in each block. Looks like a wonderful vacation, too!

PaulaB quilts said...

Your blocks are so varied, the nice thing about turquoise. Including memory fabrics was a great idea. The accent colors really make them sing. The lake waters look so clear and pristine, like the Caribbean ocean. Biking was a perfect way to get up close to the beauty.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Your string blocks are yummy! They are always a favorite of mine.

Beautiful photos from your vacation. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

scraphappy said...

As much fun as each string block is, all together they sing such a happy song. Lovely lake pictures too.

JanineMarie said...

Thanks to the input of this wonderful blogging community, I might have fixed my comment problem. This is a test. I'll let you know in my next post if it's working now.

Louise said...

That tiny seahorse!! Squee!! Your blocks look so great together. And your landscape quilt is really coming along. The embroidered grass is so realistic. I'm glad you had such a lovely vacation, too :)

Rebecca Grace said...

Three things: 1. I LOVE your rainbow scrap blocks and I'm curious about your process for string piecing. Are you just sewing strips together and then cutting blocks from your pieced strips, or are you sewing the strips to some kind of foundation? 2. Your vacation photos are spectacular -- like you were in Paradise! 3. Blogger comments: You need to "give Blogger permission" to send you emails when people comment on your blog now. All you have to do is go into your settings for Comment Notification, turn it off/put in some other email and click SAVE SETTINGS, and then turn comment moderation back on and type your email address that you want notifications to go to in that field again -- and click SAVE SETTINGS again. This will cause Blogger to send an email to you with a link for confirming that yes, this email address is giving permission to receive emails every time someone comments on your blog. And from then on out, Blogger will behave for you just like it did before they messed with it! :-)

KaHolly said...

Wow! Your string blocks look amazing all together! You have such vision! Are you using fabric as your foundation, or paper? What a wonderful vacation! Love the pics. Thanks for sharing.

Bernie Kringel said...

Catching up on some blog reading tonight. Funny but I don’t think your string quilt is a beautiful mess at all. It looks really cohesive. Probably because the strings are similarly sized and you put that pop of color into each one. I really like it. Are you planning on setting the color groups together like in this picture or will you scatter them and mix it up? I really like this! Glad you had such a nice vacation. Now you can look forward to baby’s arrival!