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February 16, 2026
Scrappy Saturday from Quarter-Inch Capers

I managed to get a couple of scrappy RSC blocks made this week in spite of running here and running there every day. 




I don’t have tons of green like I do blue, but there’s enough to have a few choices. The dark green I used on the second star is the same one I used on my February BOM. 


Here’s what is left: 


One piece about 7” x 15”. Should I cut it up for another RSC block or add it to the BOM box? Uugghh. Decisions. I ended up putting it in the BOM box ...

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February 7, 2026
Blue and Green and Everything in Between from Quarter-Inch Capers

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for February is green. I wasn’t quite ready to give up on the blues, so I made a couple more of these: 



I may do even more blues if more 2.5” blue strips appear. I also made a couple of greens. 


I have more greens cut out, but I ran out of motivation to work on them. Hopefully I’ll get some done next week. 

Other than RSC blocks, I worked on some more of my favorite improv scrap blocks. Here are eight more I finished. 


I don’t really have a purpose ...

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February 5, 2026
JANUARY 2026 - Time (again!) for UFOs and Goals for the New Year from Grandma's Red Needle

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!


Here we go again! UFOs / WIPs / RSC 2026! 

I think I'd better start with the UFO's I did finish in 2025: 
You can see them all here

1) New York Beauty
2) Keep Believing / Tomten's Quilt
3) Dwellings / House quilt
4) Snowman wall quilt
5) No name purple quilt
6) Keep the Home Fires Burning
7) Sherri McConnell BOM 2024
8) Over the River and Through the Woods


My UFO/WIP/OGP list for 2025 is as long as a freight train and here is an updated list per January 1, 2026. It ...

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February 1, 2026
The Last Week of Blues from Quarter-Inch Capers

Well, the last week of blues for the 2026 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’m sure we will get to make more blues next year. There are only so many colors to pick from, so they will continue to make an appearance every year. And the scraps continue to accumulate every year. Speaking of every year, I was cleaning out some of my stacks and found some blocks from a previous RSC. And, there are some blue ones!



I got way too excited when I found these! I didn’t do the RSC last year, so I’m thinking they were ...

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Rock & Roll Quilt from Sew Preeti Quilts

In May of last year, Mary Helen reached out to me with a request for a T-Shirt Quilt.  I said Yes, but it would have to wait till the end of the year.


I started the day after Thanksgiving and mailed the completed quilt the day after Christmas.

On the banks of the Potomac


The box I received contained about 18 t-shirts, most of them were never worn and in excellent condition. I cut them up - all of them. 

Then came the tiresome task of stabilizing them. I used about a bolt and a half of SF-101. 

Stabilizing T-shirts

Layering ...

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January 24, 2026
More Scrappy Blues from Quarter-Inch Capers

Good morning friends. I’m still playing with scraps. I hade made four blue nine patches last week,




and I was undecided about what to do with them. I had some leftover blue strips, and I played around and came up with this. 



I like them, but I still don’t know what I will do with them. I’m thinking I can use the neutral as a sashing assuming I have enough left.

I got another 16-patch star made with light blue this time. 


It’s pretty cute, but I think it will be the last blue one. I ...

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January 17, 2026
RSC Update from Quarter-Inch Capers

I am continuing to work on my blue blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time thinking about what I want to work on than actually working on them. Does anyone else feel that way? I’m also surprised at how many blue scraps I keep coming up with. Blue is not my favorite color, but I sure seem to have a lot of it. I’m hoping this challenge will help me use up some of it! It probably won’t make any noticeable impact! 


I made another one of the big stars ...

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January 4, 2026
A New Start for the New Year from Quarter-Inch Capers

I’m happy to say I was able to start my RSC 2026 blocks. I have two or three different blocks in mind, but I made a start on one of them. I have been making 16-patch blocks for a few weeks with the 2.5” scraps Betty gave me.



They are fun and don’t require much thought, and I managed to get 15 of them pieced in pretty short order.


My plan is to use the RSC color of the month to add the star points to these 16-patches. The January color is blue, and I got one ...

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October 11, 2025
creatively speaking this week, needle holder Halloween progress and an elephant from Not Afraid of Color

 

time for another creativity round-up for this week in October starting with a box of embroidery perle cotton balls. It just makes me happy seeing it all orderly, and all the colors! 

And I used it to do hand stitching on this week's brown scrap project (for rainbow scrap challenge) 

a needle holder
it all started with sorting through my bin of brown scraps. I got to know what was there by sorting into strips, squares, triangles and odd shaped bits. My migraines and big floaters kept me from doing much this week but here goes! 

After sorting I ...

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October 4, 2025
creatively speaking, this week, mostly sewing from Not Afraid of Color

 

I sewed on my big hexie quilt as you go blocks this week, and finished  the 24 I need to make a wall quilt with them. 

You basically stack backing, batting, hexie then quilt it. Next you fold the backing to the front one side at a time, fold twice to hide raw edges, clip in place, then do the next side, around. Now the block is quilted, edges finished and sewn into place 

and now I have 24 finished quilt blocks to hand sew together into a quilt. I love how they came out, love the different backing purples ...

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September 26, 2025
Creatively speaking this week.... challenge to use light green/blue and moving into Halloween! from Not Afraid of Color

 

I enjoy working in colors of the season so I pulled out the bag of halloween fabric scraps and played!

it's always messy in the beginning, and I love seeing scraps laid out in piles according to size... 
Now what? I think
I get to know the prints, think of what I can make, I start sewing littles to littles

I get lost in the "scrap puzzle" as I think of it

looking so closely at it is one thing, but it will be viewed from more of a distance so I try to get some components up on ...

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September 15, 2025
creatively speaking, this week Hexie spirals from Not Afraid of Color

 

This week, I finished the hexie spiral in light pale green, or pale as I could handle! LOL 

The image above shows the blocks made in pale green, regular green, and aqua scraps

does it change how they look when turned? sort of....
or depend on the color they are near?
I now have 9 blocks done
the scrap color this month at RSC is light or pale green and blue. 
I'm not generally a pastel gal but I admit to liking this combo to give the whole quilt a light/light element

now for the light blue hexie ...

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September 12, 2025
Living a creative life this week.... sewing mostly from Not Afraid of Color

 

I've focused my creative time this week on finishing one quilt, and on photography. 

the changing seasons are exciting especially coming into the possibility of cooler temps. 

the color of the month at rainbow scrap challenge is pale green and pale blue.... so on walks I look for those colors.... 

An artist paints what she sees but what she sees is primarily what she looks for

nature paints the world with all the shades and light to dark providing contrast

I admit I'm drawn to saturated colors so focusing on pale ones is more difficult. 

what kind of ...

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August 24, 2025
creatively speaking this week, dragonfly blocks a bike and yet another hexie project from Not Afraid of Color

 

here we are again, to chat about living the creative life, and share a love for color! 

This week I've been using AQUA (and all it's tones) scraps to make dragonflies!! 

I have them on top of a batik on the design wall but do not know for sure what I want to do with them
I made 3 --12" blocks, and 6  ---- 6" blocks. The pattern is a free one from Moda. 

pattern source: MODA
I believe ironing the batks was what caused all my migraines. Oh I prewash all batiks 3 times in hot water, but ...

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August 2, 2025
creatively speaking.... this week was Aqua-full from Not Afraid of Color

 

The color of the month for Rainbow Scrap challenge is Aqua....  LOVE!! One of my very favorite colors if you include aqua (more pastel) all the way to dark turquoise. 

I like contrast mostly so I usually include all values of a color when I make something

Above I showed some of the prepped hexies on their way to this month's block

started with looking through the turquoise scrap bin and choosing these fabrics

7 of one color, and 6 of the rest, all cut about 2.5" to baste around the templates for hand sewing

It's laid ...

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July 26, 2025
creatively speaking, this week Challenge met! The butterfly house from Not Afraid of Color

 

I finished the Table Scraps challenge for this month, to use purple scraps and interpret the word blossoms (English country garden)   I call it the butterfly house!
I went to the Denver Botanical Gardens butterfly house one year and it's magical! 

It started like most of my scraps color of the month pieces start, take out the smallest scraps and start sewing them to each other. This time I started with that dragonfly fabric and had 3 scraps. I had no plan. 

As I sewed I was thinking floral strips, pretty fabrics, I sewed 3 60 deg triangles together ...

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July 12, 2025
creatively speaking, this week Purple Haze from Not Afraid of Color

 

I spent my studio time this week with these projects plus a few more. 

All in the various ranges of purples, blue-purples to red-purples from light to dark. 

I do love scraps and am grateful to my friends who sent me scraps to give me choices to use

I did three blocks for my rainbow scrap challenge quilt this week

each strip is 2.5" across width of fabric, and each one is pretty

I thought this was just okay til I noticed the gold hearts!


these might be the 4th block...

I walk a lot, and try to notice ...

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June 21, 2025
creatively speaking this week... spirals, painting challenge, machine choice, Spring Green, COLORS! from Not Afraid of Color

 

I've been progressing on each project this week. Each step teaches me, each color excites me, art is healing

Above is my rainbow scrap challenge block this year, a hexie spiral. Hand stitched with small scraps from my orange collection. So satisfying when it is done.... here are the colors completed so far
just blocks lying next to each other
The Index Card a Day challenge is on, I'm woefully behind but have now done several. We use the prompts to create something each day....
"Spring"   "Cobalt"  "Iguana" 

Love how the paints blended in the petals

drawn from ...

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June 14, 2025
creatively speaking this week: drawing, painting, and sewing from Not Afraid of Color

 

I have just a few things to share with you this week starting with one of my two rainbow scrap challenge blocks this year. The color focus is on orange scraps this month, and using them.

I chose 4 duos this week, cut them into 2.5" strips, sewed cut sewed cut sewed them into blocks of orange

Orange covers a large spectrum of color, from yellow orange to pink orange (coral)
I tried to blend some as they will not be together in the final quilt top, but mixed in with all the other colors. 
Orange makes a quilt ...

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May 31, 2025
creatively speaking--- watching paint dry, a quilt grows on the design wall, learning from others from Not Afraid of Color

 

This was a full week of creation, inspiration from color outside, inspiration from a stitch workshop, morning color work in paint, and seeing my green quilt top growing like seedlings outside.

In using scrap fabrics, I am open to possibility. How would one look against the others? I love this gentle block, but each pretty fabric plays off the others... it's one of many components now done, on the wall, waiting for a design to grow.
some detail shots
reminding myself I can insert raw edge applique anywhere 

reminding myself I can insert lines anywhere


choosing textures to set ...

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