Scraps - Use'em Up

As we make quilts there are always scraps. Some of you, I have been told, throw them away (gasp!)  Some of you give them away. Some of you cut them neatly and store them various ways..

My scraps go in piles, bags or drawers. Sometimes I iron them and put them away neatly. Sometimes they just get stuffed into a bag.

When I get ready to use them, I almost always iron them again anyway.  And then I get out way more than I think I need for whatever I am working on.

This is a group of scrap blocks that I have been amassing. One day they will become a wildly scrappy quilt in the tradition of using every bit possible. As I look at these blocks, I see a few that are just......well, they are boring, static, DULL to me.  Which ones?

Boring!

Dull.

Lacking movement. 

So how do I fix them? One great way is to slash them and insert strips.

That looks a little better,  but I am still not happy with it.  You may be able to see that I have already slashed it again.  You will see how it came out in the final image.

Two that I slashed and inserted still didn't make me happy.  So I layered them, both face up, then I cut a curve through both of them.  I swapped the pieces and sewed them.

I may later add a strip to the one on the left and sew them in this configuration. (but not today.)Now they are far more interesting.

This piece is far from "squared"  Before I square it, I will add to it.

I like to add pieces that are larger than needed. Then I can trim with options.

The nice chunk of red hand dyed fabric certainly helps. But if I square it now, I will lose some of the fun smaller pieces.

So I added the blue hand dyed fabric and then a pieced strip.  How I have trimming options that make me happy.   I will place my ruler over it to help decide.

This will not be cut to a square but rather a rectangle.  I plan to preserve ALL of the small pieces.

Perfectly imperfect!

Surprise!  I took the other one that still didn't satisfy me and used the two orphan HST blocks across the corners.  I also saved the leftovers for "seeds" to start another block.

Here are all the blocks laid out quite randomly.

See in the upper right how I added a yellow strip in that one block?

When I put this all together I will probably use a unifying color as sashing/spacer strips. That way it will be "contained chaos."

Now, you go grab some scraps and PLAY!!!

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

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