Rainbow Korner Kabin

The last of the summer days were bright and cheerful... how could they NOT be?  My RSC Kabin Korner blocks were on the design wall as it waited for borders - a scrappy checkerboard border seemed just right, followed by a large floral print.

After getting the garage door installed on Sunday, Monday morning welcomed me as I placed the rainbow quilt under the needle of my machine, poised ready to quilt in large Baptist fans.

A lavender purple thread was the top thread, and a deep purple was in the bobbin, both Aurifil 50-wt thread.  It didn't take long to have the quilting done.  I had the rainbow striped binding already prepared and before I knew it... It was done!

Striped backings are always a challenge to get perfectly straight...
So, I made sure the back was perfectly wonky

This quilt is a gift for a very special person, Darlene.  Darlene and I met each other 26 years ago when we attended a Christian women's weekend.  Through the years we would meet up again when we were both a part of the teams that help to make the weekend retreats run smoothly.

Darlene will be leading a women's weekend in October, and this quilt will be gifted to her at that time.

Shhhhh... don't tell! lol.  😉

I have so many thoughts and memories connected to this quilt, the women's weekends I have participated in and helped to lead and how God is forever faithful... and how the rainbow is a message and sign of that faithfulness directly from God Himself.  

When I was in my HS youth group, we attended a youth conference held in Estes Park.  One year's theme was the Rainbow Connection.  The main song of the conference was that song as sung by Kermit the Frog.  I've have always loved the song... so if you have seen the pictures on insta and fb, you have heard Kermit singing Rainbow Connection.

You probably noticed that the backing is not straight.  I actually did that on purpose.  Getting striped backing to be perfectly straight can be challenging.  So, I used a trick that I use when scrapbooking.  If you know you can't write in a straight line, or get stickers on perfectly straight... make them wonky and "imperfect" on purpose.

Have you ever tilted a striped backing?

Or do you just avoid striped backings?

Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you!

Keep Piecing,

Melva

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Top Notch

Are there any other bloggers out there that actually pay attention to the stats of their blog?  I've always found the stats tab (on blogger) interesting and have been known to use it to help me discover the top five posts of the year.

Blogging was something I started doing in 2013 when I submitted a quilt block for consideration in volume 8 of 100 Quilt Blocks - a publication by Quiltmaker Magazine.  The application had asked for a variety of things such as fabric line, pattern company, classes taught or name of quilt shop.  I had nothing to include on those lines.  They also asked for the name of the blog... that was the only bit of info I could provide.  It was the jumping off point for Melva Loves Scraps!

I still can't fill in many of those lines, but have grown in my confidence as a quilter, block/quilt designer and pattern writing and I have even offered a few quilt talks through the years. 

Back to the stats... I noticed last week and a few weeks prior that the number of visits to Melva Loves Scraps had spiked tremendously (like tripled!).  

I figured that spiders and bots were responsible for it...  I tried to track down the main source of the visits but didn't have much luck.  Sure, I have been quite busy this summer in participating in more link-up parties on a more regular basis.  But I was unable to pinpoint the source.  

And then I saw something about Top 100 quilt blogs and started searching... sure enough, on August 19th an updated list of the Top 100 quilting blogs had been published and there I found Melva Loves Scraps listed at #81.  They claimed, "The best Quilting blogs from thousands of blogs on the web and ranked by relevancy, authority, social media followers & freshness." 

While aware that I have been on previous lists, this was still a pleasant surprise.

I remembered that I had mentioned such an honor a few times on the blog... and in my search came across another honor... the nomination by fellow bloggers as an Outstanding Blogger.  Each nomination came with a few questions as a request for the nominee to answer as though in an interview.  

It was a fun little activity to participate in.  So... I was thinking... (This is what happens when I am not fully immersed in a quilt project. 😉)

Who wants to play along?

No hard and fast rules to follow!  The first three bloggers to let me know they want to join the fun need to send me an email and I will give you five questions to answer.  Write your blog story, answering the questions I give you and then YOU choose two or three others "nominate".  You'll give them their questions, and we all sit back to watch for the wave of Outstanding Bloggers to emerge.  

Sometimes it is a risk to nominate someone, and they choose to not participate... don't fret.  Like chain letters from the past, it may or may not be a success. Hahaha. ;)

I really need to go to my studio. LOL!  Leave a comment or send me an email!  MelvaLovesScraps@NolanQualityCustoms.com

Keep Piecing,

Melva