Two Now Stacked, Whacked, Sliced and Topped

 Back on April 26 I posted about four quilts I was working on using stack and whack/slice and dice techniques.   I now have two tops completed. 

Large Hourglass Quilt

63 x 84

 A few years ago I was gifted a package of 11.5 inch squares.  I stacked them and cut on the diagonals and sewed them into Hourglass blocks. And then into a top. 

 And now I have a nice sweet donation quilt top. I think I may have a nice sweet sheet I can use for the back. 

 And now for a top that is not so sweet. 

Critters

42 inch square.

 This was made from a gifted package of 10 inch squares of bugs and other critters. 

Wonky Nine Patches

Stack two contrasting squares face up.

Make two vertical slices.

Swap center piece.

Sew together.

Iron toward darker pieces.

Stack two resulting pieces face up again.

Make two horizontal slices.

Swap center piece.

Sew together. 

This was quick, easy and fun to make.  I think I have the perfect piece of flannel for the backing.

Hey, I might even finish these sooner than later...UFO Prevention!!  

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Pea Soup

 Pea Soup

It's a flimsy! (or a top, if you prefer)

64 x 80

 It is the third quilt to come out of a 16 quart bin of 4.5 inch parts accumulated over a number of years.  The first quilt was Whigmaleerie which is still a top. The second quilt which has yet to be gifted to my new grandnephew Evan born in February was an I Spy. 

For this one I first pulled out all of the green 4.5 inch parts and made a variety of 8 inch (finished) blocks from those parts. I ended up with 38 blocks. Then I decided on size. At first I was going to combine blocks into a 40 x 60 donation quilt but then looked at my green scrap chunks and decided to make an alternate hourglass block and go a little larger. 

I decided to make the Hourglass blocks out of a solid or tone on tone green plus another green scrap. It took almost all of the solid and tone on tone greens I had to make the 40 Hourglass blocks but I made do.  

I made the Hourglass blocks with a 4.5 inch scrap cut with the Easy Angle Companion ruler. When I use that ruler I cut the beginning piece with the Easy Angle ruler so I have an HST to use later and so that fabric doesn't go into a crumb box. 

 Then I just sewed blocks together.  

Sometimes you can see an Ohio Star formed and other times you can see an Economy Block. 

 And so it goes. 

 And here's the 4.5 Inch Parts Department after three quilts. 

Hmmmm...what next? Maybe I'll do something with the pink and yellow stack. 

 Scrap Management

 But first I need to clean up the leftover scraps. Remember those HST pieces cut from the beginning and end of the strip used for Hourglass pieces? I need to get those made into 4.5 inch HSTs. The should I put them back into the 4.5 inch parts box?? Or sew them into blocks for the orphan box? Or sew them into a strip for a border,strip quilt or pieced backing? 

And there''s a few scraps I need to cut into 4.5 inch squares and put them into the squares scrap box and then any pieces less than a 4.5 inch square will be sewn into a strip because I have a scrap box of strips in a variety of sizes and colors that will be used in a Chinese Coins quilt someday. 

And sew on.

Orange 1.5 Inch Scraps and A Few Orange Crumbs

 Four Postage Plus blocks made from 1.5 inch scraps.  These finish at 10 inches.  Yes they could be made a lot faster with strip sets; however, I'm trying to use up my 1.5 inch scraps and I actually enjoy sewing together the individual squares.  I enjoy seeing all the little scraps in the color of the month that I get to work with to make my blocks. And, I'm in no hurry to get 'er done. 

With crumbs I made a couple of Crumby Hourglasses (Crumbs of Time??) that finish at roughly 11 inches.   In January I blogged about how I made these.  I'm making these out of crumbs in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month and a solid in a complementary color. 

Now I'm waiting for a new color to be announced. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Crumby Hourglasses

A couple of years ago I decided it was time to try to use up crumbs. I ended up making four quilts but I still had crumbs left.  I was thinking this year I need to concentrate on using crumbs again. 

I don't really enjoy making quilts with crumb block squares. I get bored. I like to use crumbs in different ways.  So I've been trying to decide on different ways to use them.  I'm making 12 inch nine patches with solids in red/white/blue.   So what else should I do with crumbs??? 

And then came the latest Ad Hoc Improv Prompt  - Hourglass.  You know how I just love challenges, prompts, games to move some scraps along. 

I decided to try some Crumby Hourglasses. I decided to make them of crumbs of one color and use a solid in a complementary color as the other fabric.   These ended up to be about 11 inches unfinished.   They were easy to make and I like them so I'm going to add them to my monthly list of Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects to make each month. If I make two each month I will end up with 24 at the end of the year and set 4 x 6 it will make a perfect sized quilt for one of the places I donate smaller quilts.  If I get the urge I may even make four blocks per month and end up with two quilts. 

 Here's the way I made them...Make a 12.5 inch square of crumb fabric. 

 With right sides together lay a 12.5 square on top of the crumb fabric and slice on the diagonal. Sew with 1/4 inch seam along the diagonal on each half to make two HSTs. 

 With right sides together, HSTs reversed but with seams going in the same direction nest seams and then cut on the diagonal. Sew those two seams together along the diagonal for two Quarter Square Triangles or Hourglass blocks.