Saturday, December 17, 2022

Leftover Medley

I turned the leftovers from making Zip blocks into little 3 inch finished Bow Ties. I have quite a collection of these now. I'm aiming for a big quilt. I also made a few 3 inch finished Broken Dishes blocks.  Next year some of these will turn into Squared Away blocks each month because that will be one of my many Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects.   I also made a couple more Chinese Coin strips. 

Also from Zip leftovers I cut some squares.  The sets of four identical will go into my Monkey Wrench workbox. They will combine with 3.5 inch HSTs as they happen to make 7.5 inch finished Monkey Wrench blocks.  Then there's a little pile of sets of 2 identical and single 2 inch squares that will go into my squares box. 

Speaking of Monkey Wrench blocks...here's some 5 inch finished Monkey Wrenches made with leftovers from making Heart blocks. 

I also cut sets of four identical, two identical and single 2.5 inch squares.  Then I was looking at all the 2.5 inch sets of 2 squares and thought...

...why not make Four Patches with the red ones and the leftover neutrals.  I've been thinking for a long time of making a simple red, white and blue Four Patch quilt.  So, that's what I did...made Four Patches and a New Start. 

Then I made a couple of little 6 inch finished 18 patch blocks for my collection. And, of course I ended up with my usual Chinese Coin strip. 


Well, then I decided to go through my 2.5 inch squares box and pull out the sets of 2 reds and blues. Then I made more Four Patches for my red, white, blue Four Patch quilt. 




After that I pulled out a few similar red and blue squares from my 2.5 inch squares and made more Four Patches.  I also pulled out all colors of floral 2.5 inch squares but more on that later on. 

I had some 2.5 inch squares in civil war reproduction fabrics left over from making Long May She Wave so I made more Four Patches with those scraps.  

I have a few collections of different fabrics and I keep the scraps for those collections separate from the general population of scraps.  After I finished making red and blue Four Patches from the civil war repros I looked through the '30s reproduction scraps and found a few 2.5 inch blues and reds. 

Then I looked through the patriotic print scraps and found a few 2.5 inch width scraps and made, you guessed it...Four Patches. 

Then I looked through the Parts Department bin that contains all sorts of different four inch blocks and dug out some red and blue Four Patches. By this time I was thinking this red, white and blue Four Patch quilt has quite the mix of fabrics so I started thinking of it as a melting pot. So Melting Pot is the name I'm giving this red, white and blue quilt.   Now maybe I should count how many Four Patches I have and settle on a size for the quilt. 

While I was in the 4 inch block Parts Department I found some Heart blocks leftover from a quilt made in the past that I think I gave to my daughter.  Well, anyway, I swapped a few of those Parts Dept. heart blocks with a couple of the duplicates in the collection for my new Heart quilt and...

...I thought I would use them as the centers of some Wonky Log Cabin blocks. I may just use red centers instead of adding in the pink ones but anyway I guess this is another New Start to use strings. I tried a couple of blocks out to see how they would look and I like them with the bright strings for a child's donation quilt.  My plan for 2023 is to clear a spot for a table so I can set up an old sewing machine and use that spot as my crumb and string center where I can go sew crumb or string blocks as the urge strikes and leave the mess sewing those blocks out until I've used up all my strings and crumbs. 

Ok. So remember earlier I said I pulled out all colors of floral 2.5 inch squares? Well, I used those along with some old shirts cut into 16 -4.5 inch squares (I did have to poverty piece a few squares like the second one in the bottom row that looks kind of puckered but it isn't. It's pieced at the top and checks don't match.) to make Indian Hatchet blocks...

...for a quilt inspired by this one. I think it's a vintage one but I don't remember the source of my photo right now.  I'm making mine with 16 blocks across and 20 down for a quilt that should finish at 64 x 80. 

I was going to use all florals for the flippy corners but after I made 3 rows I didn't have enough floral squares to make another row. So maybe I'll just use whatever 2.5 inch squares I have left in my squares box or maybe I'll look through my scrap bags (sorted by color) for some more floral scraps. 

And finally, I cut a few 2 inch squares, made a few Bow Ties and a Chinese Coin strip with the few 2 inch width leftovers from Fruit Flavored Log Cabin. 

So that's how one thing leads to another around here. Just by sewing up leftovers in this post I ended up with lots of blocks and 3 New Starts. 

And sew on...




 

10 comments:

Julierose said...

You are really getting ready for 2023 so well--love those Indian Hatchet blocks...nice works in progress hugs, Julierose

Deanna said...

So many fun ideas! Thanks for sharing.

Linda said...

Oh.......My........Goodness! I’m speechless!

mangozz said...

Yowza! You are giving your sewing machine a really good workout! It looks like you already (almost) have enough blocks for the red, white and blue quilt. And that Chinese Coin quilt should be just about ready to be put together too. You are always so inspiring!

maggie fellow said...

such a fun rabbit hole to watch- love the blocks and parts

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Love your tiny bowties! The red, white, and blue 4 patches will make a great quilt, too. Lots of fun things going on in your sewing room!

Sandy Panagos said...

What a fun bunch of leftovers you have! It's like making something out of nothing. Nice!

Cindy said...

Cathy, I just love how you start with one block set and then take the leftovers and turn them into something else!!!! Over and over!!!!! Your posts are so very inspiring!!!!!

Anonymous said...


Very inspirational,, I need to do more with my scraps

The Joyful Quilter said...

You and your scrap usage... SEW inspiring, Cathy!!