Cleaning Up the Red Crumbs

 Two Slabs (twelve inch)

I work with my crumbs all month long. I have an old sewing machine set up with a couple of boxes of all colors of crumbs next to it.  That's my Crumb Machine.   I define crumbs as odd bits and pieces usually less than a six inch square. 

I've never been very successful at ridding myself of these crumbs so this year I decided to sew them together each month by color - the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.   And then I'm saving up all the blocks to make donation quilts at the end of the year.  I can't wait to see how many donation quilts I will be able to make. 

First of all, I usually pull the biggest regular shaped pieces out to make Slabs with heart centers. 

 Nine Mendota Blocks (Ten Inch Offset Squares)

These have five inch centers. So if I come across a big five inch crumb I set it aside for these blocks. If color is primary I use primary color for borders and if secondary color then it gets secondary color for borders. 

In the wonky HST box I found enough red/white HSTs in various sizes to make a quilt all by itself I think. I have an idea in mind but haven't gotten to it so set these aside to work on later. 

 Various Sized Orphans with HSTs

I sewed together the rest of the wonky HSTs that weren't red and white into a variety of blocks. The reason these are wonky is because I think most have been cut off blocks made with "flippy corners" and I don't cut them off leaving an accurate 1/4 inch...I just cut with scissors and eyeball it. Hey...what does it matter? The seam is already sewn.   I used to sew those flippy corner cuts together right away and throw them in a box but I've gotten sloppy over the years and now have a box of  flippy corners that need to be sewn into bonus HSTs as well. 

And I chain piece and discovered that when you sew the half pieces together for Pinwheels or Broken Dishes they are the same - just depends on how you arrange them.  I think I meant about half of them to be Pinwheels but arranged them as Broken Dishes. That's how I know. 

 This year I've also been making strips from the various sized scraps as I use them...for instance when I work from the 2.5 inch scraps and a piece ends up less than a 2 inch square I set it aside for a strip. Until this year I did not do that so those bits are in the crumb boxes.  Anyway...I dug out those pieces and made a strip and a couple of nine patches for the orphan box (orphanage). 

 Six Crumb Stars

I found a few pieces that were 4.5 inches that were just right for star centers. I've been adding a background in complementary colors. 

 From Cathy's Confectionary Company - Twelve Cherry Crumby Yummies

(If you look closely enough you'll see that a few are chocolate covered cherry flavored!)

For the Stars, Candies and Fish I usually sew crumbs together into several long strips trying to keep them about 4.5 inches wide.  I later then cut those into 4.5 inch squares. I was mindlessly chain piecing the blocks and was almost finished when I noticed I had left off those "flippy corners".  Well, I could have just left them as square candies but they just didn't look right so to the seam ripper I went.  This batch of candy ended up to be more work than expected!

And finally...

Twelve Itty Bitty Nitty Gritty Fish

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday