Twinkling in the snow

 Hi everyone, and happy weekend! I know last weekend was the first weekend of the year, but this really feels like the first one for me, maybe because I worked all week. As you'll see in today's pictures, it snowed and was cold here this week, with a couple of days that were cold and clear. No huge traffic backups, thankfully, so the snow and cold made me unreasonably happy. Something about the sunshine and the crisp air just made me feel good. What can I say? I am a Midwesterner at heart, and January needs some snow and cold. (But only the happy kind, please!)

 

Anyway. . .it's the beginning of another year of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at soscrappy, and this year I have four projects I want to work on. Heaven knows there are enough scraps for all of them, you know? I only got a chance to work on two of them this week, but here is the first one:

 

Look how cute those stars are! These are Twinkle Stars from one of Angela's tutorials, and I have admired them for years. Why haven't I made them before now?

These stars are fast and easy to make, and I followed Angela's instructions, except that I used 3-1/2 inch units instead of 2-1/2, so that my blocks finish at 9 inches. For my quilt, I'm going to keep all the stars yellow and change the colors of the star points each month. I plan to make 42 total stars, which is four a month, with something else substituted when we get to yellow. I haven't figured out what color that will be yet, but I'm sure the stars will look great.

The second project I actually tried to start last year, but this year I actually have a plan, so I think it's going to go a lot better. I thought I would make Bonnie Hunter's Winter Blues in multicolors, but I just kind of randomly made some blocks for a few months and petered out. So, to restart:

 

Yes, having a plan helps! These are the red blocks for my unnamed rainbow quilt. This time, I sat down and drew everything out and figured out just how many blocks of each color I need, and how many connector units, and alternate blocks. (Raise your hand if you think all quilt patterns should have a coloring page. It would make planning so much easier!) These are all the reds I need, so I'm calling that a restart!

As I said, I have four total projects, but the other two are still in pieces, so they will have to wait for now. I hope to get them ready before the end of this month. I hope all of your new projects are going well, and I'm really looking forward to following them all this year. Happy stitching, all!

An incredibly beautiful day!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22 (gulp!)