No Scrap Too Small

You've probably heard the saying,

When life gives you scraps, make quilts.

Today, I was thinking ... when the scraps are too small, make fabric ... to use to make quilts. Or in my case a quilt block.


After a couple years of making blocks for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge, I find that the fabrics in my scrap bins have become quite small.

So this weekend, I pulled out a bunch of too-small scraps and made the fabric in this 8-inch heart block.

The pinwheel block is made from the bonus triangles created by the snowball corners on in the stars. It is 2 1/4 inches (finished size)

I created the heart block pattern for the January Block Lotto.  We're making the lotto blocks from fabric made from (mostly) red scraps.  So far, 23 quilters have made 120 heart blocks. If you're interesting to take a look, follow the link for some red hot eye candy.


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Whether you call it crumb-piecing, string-piecing, improv quilting or making fabric, if you're in the mood to make some crumby, scrappy heart blocks of your own, you can find my pattern by clicking the image on the right.

That's Grace Hopper photo-bombing my attempts to photograph my blocks.

Sometimes when life give you too-small scraps (or a cat that insists those quilt blocks are hers), you just have to go with the flow.

It's a Little Bit Ironic ...

A funny thing happened after I decided to align the Block Lotto blocks and their fabric guidelines with the Rainbow Scraps Challenge ... I stopped regularly checking in and linking with the Scraphapppy Saturday posts. It has nothing to do with one or the other ... just me and my life struggles.

I'm trying to get back in the habit, so I thought to share my progress with my scrappy rainbow sampler, which will be made from this year's Block Lotto block patterns with a setting of lots of scrappy rectangles.

This is June's Improv Bullseye block, surrounded by some of the green and aqua/turquoise/teal rectangles that will surround it in the quilt.

Each of the blank squares in the drawing is filled with 4 of the monthly block. I have made all the blocks so far this year ... but need to play catch-up on cutting the setting rectangles.


I am itching to pull out all the cut rectangles and blocks and throw them on my design wall to get a better idea of how this quilt will look ... but at the moment, the Lemoyne star blocks I blogged about earlier this week are parked there, in their very specific order and this dyslexic quilter is a little afraid to take them down until they are firmly sewn together ...

I know a few quilters are also quilting along and making this sampler. You can find the basics for this quilt and the Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler (#OMMS) here:

2016 QAL

Counting Blocks - May's (Sad) Effort

This is my continuing monthly count of blocks made for for Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge. 

Here's the very short list of the 14 blocks made in May. Added to the 198 blocks made so far this year, my new running total is 212 blocks.

4 more scrappy green leaf blocks (arranged in pinwheel fashion) for my graduated sampler.

9 Improv Bullseye blocks–5 for the June Block Lotto, 4 for my rainbow scraps graduated sampler. You can find details about this month's Bock Lotto, a link to the pattern and a coupon good during the first 10 days of the month in this post on blocklotto.com:  Improv Blocks in June I also completed the second border on a Cotton Robin quilt which I will count as one more block ... we are all now working on quilting/finishing the quilts, so I will be able to share my part on this secret-until-they-are done round robin.  I really had fun adding rounds to two quilts and am looking forward to quilting and binding the third one ... and, of course, I can't wait to see what everyone added to mine.

Leaf Blocks and a Leafy (FINISHED!) Project

Sometimes, it feels like some of my blog posts are me, saying the same old things over and over again ... and I fear that this may be one of those posts. Only the images/projects are new–if you have followed me a while, what I have to say about them may feel very familiar to you, too.

These are the 4 pairs of blocks that I made for this month's Block Lotto.

The guidelines for these scrappy green blocks require at least 4 fabrics–2 green and 2 lights (background).  In the photo, my blocks are least scrappy at the top and most scrappy at the bottom.

We are making them in mirror-image pairs.

If you are curious, you can find the details (and link and coupon for the block pattern) here:

Green Leaves of May


I am referring to them as LEAF block pairs, but, of course, you might make them in a non-leaf color and/or arrange them in a non-leafy geometric way.

Here are three possibilities, each made from 4 leaf blocks–for my graduated rainbow sampler, I haven't yet decided which arrangement of four blocks I will use.

 

The first two blocks–which I think of as an X and an O (or, at other times, a butterfly and an emerald) are made from 2 pairs of leaf blocks.  The third arrangement, a scrappy sort of pinwheel, is made using four of the same block.

The other possibility is to go with the idea of scrappy green leaves and use the blocks as a basis for creating a plant.  If you look at the updated layout for Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler, you might see that it is my intended use for these blocks in the quilt.

I couldn't resist playing with the idea of creating a blooming plant in a small way, so ... I made a pillow cover.

I love small projects like this 16-inch pillow because it's a great way to work on an idea in a small way, try a new technique, or practice/warm-up before you tackle something larger or perhaps dearer to you.  In my case, it had been too long since I'd done any free-motion quilting and needed the practice/warm-up and also wanted to try mixing two motifs in a random way as a filler design.

I also played a little with the limits of combining a scrappy background (including some darker pinks) with the scrappy leaves without losing contrast between them.

The petals which form the flower are prepared used interfacing with fusible on one side only, fused in placed and then secured with quilting. The stem is a 3-D element that is inserted and, if desired, also held in place with quilting.

The pillow has a simple, unquilted, lapped back.

I included the directions for making the pillow as as a bonus in the block pattern for Green Leaf Pairs - Quilt Block Pattern.

Counting Blocks - April 2016

This is my continuing monthly count of blocks made for for Prairie Moon Quilts' 350 Block Challenge.  April was not a very productive month for me, quilting-wise (or in terms of blogging), but, as usual, preparing for the block lotto ensures I will spend at least a little of my time quilting each month. 

Here's the list of the 19 blocks made in March. Added to the 179 blocks made during the first quarter of 2016, my new running total for 198 blocks.

5 Butterfly blocks (2 of these were made in March and already counted)–one to test an idea of how to convert a paper-piecing pattern to traditional templates and 4 for my rainbow scraps sampler.  (I still need to make 5 more of these for the Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler quilt)
My compulsion interest in completing this very old UFO has waned, but I did manage to make 6 more of these Summer Vine blocks.
... and although I am dealing with some technical difficulties in putting together the block pattern for the May Block Lotto, I did make these 8  scrappy green leaf blocks.

How Many Ways ...

How many ways have you used freezer paper in quilting?

When I was thinking about a way to make this month's paper-foundation-piecing block pattern for the Block Lotto in a non-paper-piecing way, my first thought was, "freezer paper."  I'll tell you what I did and how it worked for me, but first, some eye candy–my butterfly blocks for the Block Lotto (top three) and for my rainbow scraps sampler (bottom four).

One of these butterfly blocks is NOT like the others ... because it wasn't paper pieced. 

I started by printing the foundation pattern on an 8 1/2 by 11-inch piece of freezer paper (which I had earlier cut and weighted to make it flat enough to make my printer happy.  

Then I carefully cut the pattern apart on the lines. 

Because the left and right sides of the butterfly are mirror images of each other, I only cut apart one side and the center.

I then ironed my freezer paper templates to the wrong side of the appropriate fabrics.  The fabrics that make up the two sides of the butterfly are folded right-sides-together. Using a ruler and a rotary cutter, I added 1/4-inch to each edge and cut all the pieces I need ... until I realize that one of the pieces I cut from background should have been orange. Oops.

I sewed the pieces together in the numbered order–the same order as you would add the fabrics to the foundation, if you were paper-piecing the block.

Your mileage may differ, but I still managed to goof and sew the first two small triangles together the wrong way on one side.  I chalked it up to my spatial dyslexia.

Because I didn't trim the extended seam lines of the points, aligning some of the pieces was a little tricky and some caution was needed there, but the block went together quite quickly.

After each side and the center was sewn, it went together just as it's foundation pieced version.

The first block was probably more of an effort for me than just paper piecing the block and felt a little less precise than a paper pieced block, but when I was done, I liked the result, I liked having no paper to remove and I found myself thinking about making the blocks for my Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler using this technique.

And ... I have now used freezer paper in yet another way for quilting ;-)

It's a Start ...

If you made it all the way to the bottom of the list of blocks I posted yesterday, then you have already seen my first scrappy orange blocks for this month. This is the "blocks in the wild" photo I took for the block pattern cover.


The morning after I took this photo,  the backyard looked like this ... and the snow was still coming down.

"You thought it was Spring?  April Fools!" says Mother Nature.

These are paper-pieced blocks and in the pattern, I included notes about how I approach cutting/trimming the fabrics for foundation pieced blocks to end up with a block that is on-grain and doesn't have any stretchy bias edges.

Next week, I plan to make more scrappy butterfly blocks for the April Block Lotto and get started on the blocks for my two samplers.

In the meantime, for those that are making one of the sampler quilts I designed of this year's Lotto block patterns, I put together a post with some information to keep in mind when choosing background colors for your Butterfly blocks and some alternative block ideas for those that are making one of the samplers but don't like paper-piecing and won't make this block for their sampler.  That's the great thing about quilting–there are always alternatives.   You can find it on Blocklotto.com here:

Sampler Saturday - Blocks and Options for Butterfly Blocks

Details for this month's Block Lotto–including the coupon code for the pattern–are here:

Orange You Ready to Try Paper Piecing in April?

It's just a start ... but I am joining the party for the first orange Scraphappy Saturday ... and looking forward to seeing what everyone else is making from their orange scraps.

It's Sampler Saturday at Sophie Junction

It feels a little bit like a Violet factory here.

I know that violets aren't a spring flower, now realize that violets are very much a spring flower in much of the world, but and this block is such a great fit for the designated colors for this month's Rainbow Scraps Challenge, I couldn't resist.

For the Block Lotto this month, I extended the color of our violets a bit beyond purple on either side of the color wheel to include pinks and blues.  So far all the blocks made and posted have been delightful and feel like spring, even if they aren't spring flowers.

We made a larger version of this block in 2011. You can download the free, updated block pattern (with measurements for making the block in eight sizes) here:

Violet Block Pattern

After making these blocks, I kept going and made some progress on the two (different) samplers I am making from this year's lotto blocks.



For the scrappy, rainbow-colored graduated sampler, I made these four blocks and cut the rest of the purple and blue setting rectangles I need.

Put together with January's Birds in the Air blocks, the bottom of this sampler quilt will look something like this–the pieced in the right third were overlapped and squished together to fit on my small design wall.

I know I will arrange and re-arrange the fabrics that make up the setting around the blocks and probably replace some of them when it comes time to put it all together, but so far, it's working for me.



For my Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler, I have cut all the fabrics, but only just started putting together the blocks.  You can see where the 11 violet blocks fit on the 2016 QAL page on the Block Lotto.

The violet blocks  are concentrated near the bottom of the quilt and mixed in with last month's Snail's Trail blocks.

I used some of the same pale tans and greens as the background for my purple violets.

As soon as I had made a couple of the violet blocks, I had to put them on the wall with my desert-colored Snail's trails to see how they looked together.  My plan for the weekend is to finish the remaining 9 violet blocks needed for this sampler.

While digging through my blue and purple scraps and looking through my stash for additional fabrics, I realized that I still have A LOT of blue fabrics–probably I should think about making a scrappy blue quilt ... as soon as I make some progress on the UFOs around here.

I'm joining the party for Scrap Happy Saturday.

Chocolate Snails (Trails) on my Wall

Combine the designated color for this month's  Rainbow Scraps Challenge and the February Block Lotto choice and, in my mind, I keep thinking Chocolate covered Snails (Trails). Ugh.

They look better than they sound ...

For the Block Lotto this month, we've expanded the second color beyond the RSC accent color of pink to include pastels and low volume prints in any color.

After I went outside and took a blocks in the wild photo of my blocks for the block pattern, they went back on the wall, in an on-point orientation (I was curious).

Here are my blocks as cover girls ... and a link to the block pattern.

Snails Trail - Quilt Block Pattern

I realized when I was outside taking photos ... I don't think I've seen a snail since moving to New Mexico. Maybe they don't like the dry climate?

In addition to directions for rotary cutting and traditionally piecing the 6 inch block, the pattern includes an introduction to paper foundation piecing, a foundation pattern and step-by-step directions for using that technique for making the block.

It's probably because this is the first block I paper pieced, that I think it's a good place to start. This little wall hanging is my fist quilt. It was made from four 4-inch blocks, made from two cotton prints re-claimed from shirts and a bit of white-on-white suggested by another student in class. I hadn't YET committed to quilting or started a stash.

(I am sure I must have a better photo of this little quilt ... but this sad little photo is the one I found).

The quilt teacher that day also pointed out that the same foundation can be used to make a completely different block by replacing the 4-patch with a square and using a different fabric placement.

I think the "new block" variation would be a great pattern to use for scraps. Square-in-a-square-in-a-square-in-a-square?

I am joining the lists for Monday Making on Live Laugh Quilt and for Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times.

Scrappy Synchronicity

I love scrappy quilts and have always looked upon both the Block Lotto and the Rainbow Scraps Challenge as wonderful motivators to use my scraps and make scrappy quilts.

This year, they are even more tied together–if only in my mind–for a couple of reasons:

1. The fabric guidelines for the Block Lotto have been chosen based on the color of the month for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge. 
2. I have designed 2 mystery sampler quilts–one more of a mystery than the other–that are suitable RSC projects. 

This month's lotto block is a 6-inch traditional Birds in the Air block made in blue or purple with white.

As I was making my blocks, I started thinking about Angela's theme–snowflake.  She provided this beautiful snowflake inspiration. 

I was thinking that how those who live in snow and cold weather often have a different feeling about snow and snowflakes (and the freezing temperatures that are part of the equation) than those that do not. I confess that I don't think pretty blue/purple images when I think snow.

But, the idea of snowflakes as a theme, inspired me to bundle up, take my blocks outside and photograph them on my snow-frosted deck. I have new admiration for those that photograph quilts in snow without disturbing the snow ...

You can find more information about this month's Block Lotto here:

New Year, New Block and Birds in the Air

And, you can download my Birds in the Air quilt block pattern here. Using the Payhip service is something new for me, so I would appreciate hearing about your experiences.

The pattern includes traditional and alternative methods for constructing the block and cutting measurements for making the block in 7 sizes.  Check out the Block Lotto to find out how to get the block pattern for free for the first 10 days of the month.

Both sampler quilts I have designed for this year's lotto blocks could be made scrappy or not ... but in my mind, they are definitely scrappy.

Old MacDonald's Mystery Sampler is the most mysterious of these two designs. The name popped into my head and stuck, so that may give you some idea of the theme.

It measures 54 by 66 inches, without borders or sashing, just 99 six inch blocks in a 9 by 11 grid.  The number of each of the 12 blocks you'll need for this quilt varies between 2 and 15.

For this month, make 6 Birds in the Air blocks in colors that suggest sky (I'll be using pale blues and purples combined with medium blues).

The other sampler quilt design is less mysterious because I can tell you that you need to make 4 of each of the monthly blocks and I can share the setting with you.  It measures 60 by 82 inches.  Although this once can certainly be made NOT scrappy, I have come to think of this design as RSC Meets the Block Lotto.

Here is the setting in three color ways.  Each of the open squares represents 4 lotto blocks, sewn together as a 12 inch 4-patch.


Thinking scrappy, the sashing and borders are constructed of small squares.  I envisioned using black and white prints in the gradated setting on the left. The blocks could be also be black and white, maybe with pops of color (or a single bright color used as the background fabric in the blocks). The middle quilt is a simplified 2-color setting–I was thinking QOV quilt when I played with the idea of red and white setting fabrics and predominately blue blocks.

I plan to make the rainbow version on the right. I'll be going through my scraps and constructing the setting units as I make my blocks.  I suspect that my quilt colors will have an over-all softer look than this quickly constructed graphic.  My four Birds in the Air blocks will fill the spot on the left in the bottom row.

I will be sharing more information–beginning with fabric requirements for those that need them–if anyone is interested in quilting along with me.

I am joining the parties for Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!  Please let me know if you're interested in joining a quilt-along for one of these block lotto samplers.

Another Workshop Project

I was gifted with a guild workshop in November, along with the argument that I could pull fabrics from my stash so I couldn't say no. Life has been especially harsh (in case you wondered why I stopped blogging) and my heart wasn't really in it, but I went.

The workshop was taught by Karla Alexander.  Each student chose a project with curves from one of her books or patterns.

A bunch of us choose Electric Fence, the cover quilt from her book, Color Shuffle–clicking the book image will take you to Amazon.

I generally choose technique classes, not those based on making a quilt, so  I went into this one with the idea that I would make a smaller kid-sized version of the project–made from 20 blocks instead of 35–and concentrate on the technique and design ideas shared in the workshop.

When I was choosing fabrics from my stash, it seemed my bright choices were going beyond "electric" and I started to think of this little quilt as Neon Fence.

 

Yesterday, as I was (finally) putting the blocks together, I thought about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and wondered if those electric sheep were jumping over neon fences? I'm not sure where that idea came from–I'm really not much of a fan of science fiction–but some jumping sheep may show up in the quilting design when I get there.

First, I need to decide up on borders.

But, for now, they are no longer blocks on the design wall waiting for me to DO something with them ... now it's an in-progress quilt on the design wall waiting for me to finish it up.

In the meantime, while all the fabrics were out ... some of them found their way into a December block for Blocklotto.com.  It's the last of the long rectangles, called Wonky Strips.

You can read more about guidelines and find a link to the pattern here: 

Wrapping up the Year with Wonky Strips

Row Sampler Progress - Week 2

The second row I added is made from the Many Triangles blocks we made in August. You can find the link to the block pattern for the blocks (which are 4 1/2 by 18-inches) in this post on Blocklotto.com

Earlier this week in another Block Lotto post, I blogged about how I modified the pattern to create a row from 3 1/2 of the wide blocks and my thinking when I chose the fabrics used in this row.  You can find the details here:

Week 2 of 12 + 12 = 1

Below is a closeup to show you the black bean tamale sacks (printed with black ink) I used for this row and how they look in combination with my other fabrics.

 

And here's how the completed row looks next to the the row of tulip blocks. 

I am joining the party for WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.