Scrap Processing

 

I finally finished up processing a box of 2.5 inch width scraps. Most have been given to me. Whenever I receive a box of scraps I sort through them with my little six inch ruler In hand to measure width. Then I put them in bins sorted by width. I usually have several projects going for each width of scrap. I have found that the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) is a good way to work on all of those projects- just pull scraps in the color of the month out of each bin and make the designated blocks. I am able to make a lot of comfort quilts using this method.

I have now cut up all pieces in the bin that were less than 4 squares or 10 inches or so in length. 

1. I cut 5 inch lengths for a free pattern called Charm Tuesday. I switched darks and lights for my quilt so have 104 dark 2.5 x 5 inch rectangles and 208 light. This is not a block quilt so I will probably assemble as a leader/ender. 

2. I cut a bunch of 2.5 x 4.5 rectangles. I have not counted them. That was just the size the scrap could be cut without waste. I can use these in future blocks like Two Rails or Potato Chip blocks. 

3. Bricks and Stones. The stones are 2.5 inch squares of black. The bricks are rectangles 2.5 x 4 inches. I have made 113 units out of a goal of 350 - 10 across x 35 down. I was able to cut 137  more bricks so will probably sew together bricks in the scraps in the color of the month each month.

4. 440 2.5 x 3.5 inch rectangles toward a goal of 800 for a "value quilt" similar to one I previously made. 

5. 2.5 inch squares. 

6. 1.5 x 2.5 rectangles. I put the light ones in with my potato chip blocks. I am using the rest in Pie Bird blocks. 

With any width of fabric (wof) pieces I will be making Rick Rack blocks as a RSC block. There are several free patterns and videos for this block. 

I will also be making Tennessee Blocks from 2.5 inch width scraps and squares. I will also use some contrasting solid scraps. I may use a mix of fabrics of similar value in making some of the blocks each month. 

I will also continue to make Buckeye Beauty blocks. The four patches in these blocks are made of 2.5 inch squares. 

I am going to process the box of 3.5 inch width scraps next.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

The Pink Contessa

I'm only showing 8 blocks of the completed 24 block set.

Blocks finish at 10 inches. Quilt will finish at 40 x 60.

This is going into the SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin to be assembled into a top at a future date.

I decided to make these blocks because I had noticed a lot of pinks in my 2.5 inch width scrap bin. 

I used Moda's free pattern called Contessa.  

(It is actually what I call a Basket Weave pattern).

BUT

I didn't use a jellyroll. 

I didn't make as many blocks.

I didn't make stripsets of 5 WOF strips (because I didn't have that many). Instead I made 4 strip sets of 3 or 4 strips and then cut them into the 6.5 inch sections and added  2.5 x 6.5 inch rectangle(s) (from 2.5 inch width scrap bin) to the ends of each section. 

Yesterday I showed the blue version of Contessa and I think I will have enough for a green Contessa one of these days.

And sew on...

Going where the scraps take me and making comfort quilts one scrap at a time.  

Working With 2.5 Inch Width Scraps

I mentioned at the beginning of the month that one of my goals for April is to clean up and maybe empty out a box of 2.5 inch width scraps. 

So I've been working on that and thought I would show what I've done with those scraps so far. 

I made 8 - 25 Patch blocks. That was all I needed to reach my goal of 24 blocks. 

It all started with 6 (or was it 8?) blocks I received in a box of orphan blocks last year. Instead of using them as orphan blocks I decided to make a complete set for a child's comfort quilt. I hope I can assemble the top before month end and maybe even get it quilted. If not, well, then there's next month or the month after...

New Start - Four Patches

I already had a baggie of sets of 2 - 2.5 inch squares so last week I pulled out the red sets (because RED is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month) and made Four Patches.   Since then I have sorted most of that box of 2.5 inch width scraps and now have a little pile of pieces that I think will yield 2 - 2.5 inch squares. I cut all the red pieces and made more Four Patches. I will decide what to do with all the Four Patches when I've made all the box of scraps will yield. 

I was already collecting 2.5 x 3.5 inch rectangles and 2.5 x 4.5 inch rectangles for two different quilts I have in mind so added to those baggies. I also added to a baggie of 2.5 inch single squares.  Those are stored in baggies in a big baggie. 

New Start - Bricks and Stones.

While I was sorting the scraps into piles I noticed some 4 and 4 1/4 inch lengths. I didn't want to put those into the pile to be trimmed for the 2.5 x 3.5 inch rectangles so trimmed all of those to 2.5 x 4 inch rectangles. I cut some of the black scraps in the box into squares and figured I will make them into a bricks and stones quilt laid out horizontally. 

I haven't decided what size quilt they will go into and I haven't counted how many I've been able to make so far. 

I've also cut some 1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles from the smallest pieces. They go into a baggie and go into the Potato Chip project bag. I already had quite a few rectangles in the project bag that I cut last month when cleaning up some 1.5 inch width scraps. 

For now I've been keeping all the projects and partss baggies in a flat next to the cutting mat so after I have a cutting session I can put all the parts in the right place. I still have more of those 2.5 inch width scraps to clean up but I stilll have lots of days in the month. I hope when all is said and done I only have 2.5 inch width of fabric pieces left in the box. 

And sew on...

***

REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

I shipped 10 quilts to Wrap-A-Smile. 

For significant savings on shipping costs I ship through PirateShip.com - you box up your quilts, measure and weigh box and input into that into PirateShip ap along with sender/receiver info. Then a list of ways to ship and the cost pop up with the most cost effective one recommended. Make a choice, buy a label, print a label for the box, apply to box and then drop off box which in my case is a UPS drop-off location near me. 

 

Stars and Windmills

Brown is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month. I have several blocks in the works that are only made of brown scraps.  These 8 inch Stars are one of the blocks. 

I made a lot of quarter sections of the Stars this week from 2.5 inch width scraps of browns and creams. 

After I empty my bag of brown and cream scraps set aside for these blocks as I've sorted scraps, I will assemble the Stars. 

I assembled a few Stars in the past. After I finish up these Stars from my bag of scraps I will see how many Stars I have and then decide on a quilt size. 

Another RSC project - 4 inch Windmills

With some more colorful 2.5 inch width scraps I made a few Windmills to add to the collection. 

I think I've been making these for over a year as scraps happen. Maybe now is the time to count these up and decide upon a quilt size. Then I'll know how many more are needed. I usually like to make a BIG quilt with the little blocks.   

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Oct. 4 --Hubby's G-tube fell out again. The water balloon that holds it in place was no longer holding water. I had to put in a new one. I'm really not nurse material. I'm not a blood and guts or vomit kind of person. I don't like looking at holes in people that other people don't have. But I was able to stay level--headed and not panic and put in a new G-tube to replace the old. "For better or worse", you know... (maybe 51 years ago if they told me what "worse" would involve I might have thought twice!!)

 

The Blues Chapter II

Twilight Flight

Flying Geese

6 inch

I'm still working out in the gardens a lot and helping hubby through his recovery so have not found a lot of time to sew. But I did work on the 2.5 inch width scraps this week and did end up making a few blocks and processing scraps. 

I only had a few dark blues for Geese for these blocks but I did have a few other colors of 2.5 inch scraps I had thrown into that project bag while processing scraps so sewed them up too. 

Windmills

4 inch

Last week I made the little windmills from 1.5 inch width scraps that were long enough and this week I made them from the 2.5 inch width scraps that were long enough. I have a big bag of them so one of these days I should count them and decide what I'm going to do with them. 

I cut up the remaining 2.5 inch blue scraps into:

1. Sets of four 2.5 inch squares - I have two projects that use them.

2. 2.5 x 4.5 rectangles  -- into the Parts Dept. 

3. 2.5 x 3.5 rectangles - coin quilt layout by value

4. 2.5 inch squares - into the Parts Dept. 

5. 1.5 x 2.5 rectangles -- I have two projects that use them

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Green Scraps Chapter III

Happy Geese

10 inch blocks

Inspired by a picture of a quilt in a Connecting Threads catalog, I made a few blocks last October to see how I liked making them and to see if I thought they might be a good Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. And here we are.   I'm thinking 48 blocks might make for a nice sized quilt. I'm using some very light green florals for the backgrounds for all of these blocks. 

All of the blocks I've made this week used mostly 2.5 inch green scraps. 

In Chapter I  I used mostly 1.5 inch green scraps. 

In Chapter II  I used mostly 4.5 and 4 inch scraps. 

Twilight Flock

6 inch blocks

Twilight Flock

From From the Cover (Quilter's Newsletter Magazine Editors and Contributors)

I did a few sample blocks with scrap I had laying near the sewing machine last December and then decided it would be another good RSC project to use dark scraps plus blacks. 

Happy Blocks

8.5 inch blocks

5 inch centers and 2.5 inch sides. 

Someone sent me some Happy Block border pieces for 5 inch centers. There was quite a mix of prints so I divided them up into different piles for different quilts and I will add to the borders. 

For this one I used the rainbow colored prints and I'm going to use 5 inch tone on tone (TOT) or solid 5 inch squares looking first for squares in my 5 inch squares box.   I will need 20 blocks for this donation quilt. 

This one will be florals in the RSC color of the month and will be a larger sized donation quilt so I'm thinking 30 blocks for this one. 

For this one I cut some prints with small critters for the centers and the sides will be in the RSC color of the month.  I might make two little donation quilts like this with 20 blocks each. 

Monkey Wrench

5 inch blocks

For a couple of years one of my RSC projects was Monkey Wrench blocks in three different sizes - 5 inch, 7.5 inch and 10 inch.  At the end of last year I started putting the blocks together into tops. I made four tops with the 7.5 inch blocks and then looked at the 5 inch blocks. When I counted them I had 203 blocks.   I remembered a big  Little Monkey Wrench quilt I made back in 2015 and decided to make another.   In order to do that I need 288 blocks so I made a few more from my green scraps and will keep making blocks each month until I reach 288. 

Monkey Wrench 

5 inch blocks

Nine Patch

6 inch block

And now I have 220 Monkey Wrench blocks and need only 68 more! 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

*******

CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Jan. 19 - I paid the last of hubby's 2023 medical bills ! That's definitely a cause for celebration. And I'm hoping he hardly has any medical bills for 2024.  I did catch an error on the part of the hospital - they overcharged me $1,000+ on one bill and it took me forever and many many phone calls and letters to straighten that out. But, thank goodness, they have finally seen the error of their ways and I don't have that headache anymore.

 

A Couple More Finishes

Two more finishes!

A couple of years ago I made six inch Nine Patch blocks as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project and also it was one of the last blocks I made to empty out my 2.5 inch scrap bin. Now instead of keeping scraps in bins by size I try to use scraps as they are made or if scraps are larger chunks I now store them by color. 

Well, I made three tops but I still have not used up all the Nine Patches. Last year I quilted the Snowball/Nine Patch that used the yellow, red, pink and orange Nine Patches.  For these two quilts I used the Nine Patch as the center for blocks. 

Sister's Choice

40 x 60

For this one I used the lighter colored Nine Patches for the centers of some Sister's Choice blocks that finish at 10 inches. 

I quilted in the ditch between blocks and then stitched on the diagonals.  I'm not sure if you can tell or not but I used a large Easter egg print for the binding.  Someone gave it to me a long time ago and I could never figure out how to use it in a donation quilt for kids so that it didn't look like Easter eggs. Since most of the colors in the fabric were in the quilt I thought I'd give it a try. 

The back.

The back up close. 

Framed Nine Patch

40 x 60

For this one I used the multicolored Nine Patches as the centers for Framed Nines that finish at 10 inches. 

The frames were also multicolored 2.5 inch scraps. 

I quilted it with horizontal and vertical lines. The binding was also multicolored - a stripe.  It all makes for a pretty wild and crazy quilt. 

The back.

The back close up.

And sew on...

 

More Scrap Processing - Mostly 2.5 Inch Width Scraps

Monkey Wrench Blocks 

5 inch finished

Most of these HSTs (half square triangles) were left over from cutting Flying Geese for Long May She Wave Sawtooth Stars and from cutting QSTs (quarter square triangles) for Ohio Stars.  I use the Companion Angle ruler to cut the Flying Geese and QSTs but I cut the beginning and end of the strip with the Easy Angle ruler so that fabric is not wasted but used to make HSTs. 

Most of the 1.5 inch pieces came from my Monkey Wrench workbox and were previously cut when processing scraps. 

This is what I'm talking about when I say I cut a HST from the beginning of a strip when cutting for QSTs or Flying Geese with the Companion Angle ruler. 

Four Patch

4 inch finished

for red,white, blue quilt called Melting Pot. 

These are adding up fast and I'll have enough for a quilt in no time. 

4 inch finished Broken Dishes blocks, a Chinese Coin strip (scraps 2.5 x anything between 1 and 1.5 inches) and two 18 patches made from 1.5 x 2.5 pieces. I have quite a few of these now and am aiming for a twin sized donation quilt. 

Windmills

4 inch finished

made from 1.5 x 2.5 rectangles.

I use 1.5 or 2.5 inch scraps to make these as long as I have enough for four identical pieces 1.5 x 2.5.

And finally piles of 2.5 inch squares - singles, pairs and sets of four. The sets of four go into the Monkey Wrench Workbox to use with 4.5 inch HSTs to make Monkey Wrench blocks.   I put some floral squares into my plaid Indian Hatchet workbox.  The 1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles went into the Lego workbox. 

And sew on...