Saturday 28 June 2014

RSC Yellow Celebration week 26

Angela chose the colour yellow for June, and put up a number of sampler blocks. This week I made three, and as far as I know I'm up to date on yellow.

Here are my three yellow blocks:

Clockwise from top left: Economy , Fiesta (hence the celebration) and Butterfly
I'm really pleased with the Economy block which had always frightened me somewhat because of the complex maths (Pythagoras and all that jazz).

Last week Angela posted a link to a chart with the calculations for triangle sizes, and gave her own rounded up sizes. However I recently downloaded a free app for my iPhone called "QuiltingCalc: The Quilter's Little Helper" (for iPhone or Android) from Robert Kaufman Fabrics, which calculates the sizes for you. I used this, although it was necessary to calculate in two stages: firstly the triangles to make the outside square, and then the triangles for the middle square. In other words you calculate from the outside inwards, which is what we always do anyway!

This app not only helps in calculating economy block sizes, but also backing and binding. If you have a smartphone or tablet, I would recommend you take a look. It's free!

I think I would like to mark the halfway point in this year by taking a photo of all my RSC blocks so far and posting it next week. Does that seem like a good idea for everyone? As we still have a couple of June days left we might still be making yellow blocks over this weekend, or we can use the next week to catch up generally.

I'm linking up with:

Soscrppy 


Happy Sewing
Marly.

22 comments:

Vireya said...

Pretty yellow blocks! They look bright and happy and summery.

Judy@Quilt Paradigm said...

Love, love, love your yellow blocks! AND I would also LOVE to see all of your blocks so far laid out together! That's a whole lot of love in this post huh? LOL

Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD said...

Gorgeous splash of sunshine on a Saturday morning - Chris :D

scraphappy said...

Laying all the blocks together sounds like a great way to celebrate the halfway point. Thanks for suggesting it. I'll have to try out that i-phone app -- sounds right up my alley.

Sally Trude said...

Nice happy blocks with the added bonus of a singing butterfly!

Dasha said...

What lovely blocks Marly. Laying out your blocks together sounds fun. I'm sure others would love to see them.

Debra said...

Love your sunny yellow blocks. Very cheerful!

Cathy said...

Cute!

Carla A Few Of My Favorite Things said...

Great blocks and I will have to look for that app for my tablet! Hopefully there is an android version.

Nell's Quilts said...

Love the blocks! Love the suggestion of putting all the blocks out together for a photo op. Your butterfly all in yellow is wonderful. I made mine with a pink body, then changed it our for green but still don't like it. Maybe it needs yellow!

Jo Ferguson said...

These are three, very lovely blocks. I adore the button fabric in Economy and the chevron/feathery like fabric in the other two.

Sheila said...

Love your scraps and blocks. Will be fun seeing sampler blocks made by others so far this year.

Deb A said...

Great idea! I'll do a post on Wednesday to link up to Angela's link party of the half way point. Thanks for suggesting it. Love your yellows and thanks for the tip for the calculator.

Bonnie said...

Those blocks are darling... I like that one to the far right -- does it have a name?? (I'm also going back to scour SOScraps to see if Angela posted the directions for that. I love that ap and look at it as needed. Hum, from the outside in? Can't say I've ever sized that block but it does make sense.

Gina said...

Great blocks. I love the idea of showing what you've done so far.I'm sewing mine into mini quilts for each month and when I've finished quilting them the plan is to sew them all together as one big quilt xx

Katie Z. said...

Very happy blocks!

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I especially love your butterfly Marly! So cute! And little music note fabric is fun! Great minds think a like as I took a picture of my neighborhood (as you saw...smiles!) but you are right...we should definitely celebrate the half way point with a "show and tell". Looking forward to seeing your all together!

Jo said...

Good idea about Wednesday.
Hope to see you then

Angie said...

Thanks for the referral to the Quilting Calc app - I can always use help in figuring math!

Cindy Nielsen said...

I think pictures of your progress this year is a great idea. I think will do that myself. Thanks for sharing.

Sarah said...

Cute blocks! Good tip about the iphone quilting calculator app - thank you. Not sure ive got much to show for this half of the year. But i will enjoy looking at everyone elses!

Andee said...

Love your butterfly block the best!