From The Two Inch Width Scrap Bin

 

It's a top!

Courthouse Steps

40.5 x 54

Whenever I am blessed with a box of scraps I go through them with my little ruler in hand and measure the width. Scraps less than 6 inches in width get sorted by scrap width. Any scrap greater than a six inch square gets sorted by color and I call those scrap chunks. 

I was looking at my overflowing 2 inch width scrap bin and decided to make a plan to try to empty it.

The first thing I did was pull out all the longest strips. Most of those were greens and browns. I used the greens and some of the other colors of scraps to make 14 inch unfinished Courthouse Steps blocks. 

12 blocks made a nice sized child's comfort quilt. 

I started some 11 inch unfinished Courthouse Steps blocks with brown and cream scraps. 

I have made the first round on 35 blocks. 

Right now they measure 5 inches. I think I pulled enough brown scraps out of the bin to finish the blocks. If not I will cut 2 inch width strips from brown scrap chunks. 

When I saw the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for January is blue I pulled out all of the blue 2 inch width scraps. I decided to make 8 inch unfinished Courthouse Steps in blue and light neutral scraps. I will make as many blocks as I can each month in the RSC color. 

Before the RSC color was called I played around with some gray scraps. I have seen two different blocks called Streak Of Lightning. One uses squares and 2x 3.5 rectangles and finishes st 9 inches. The other uses 2 inch squares and finishes at 6 inches. I decided they would make good use of some smaller scraps on the bins do added them to my list of RSC projects.

So...with the blue scraps and white and black squares for the "streak" I made 6 blocks.

This is the scrap with my scribbled instructions for the other Streak of Lightning block I saw several places online.

I made four blocks. When I put them up to take a photo I quickly realized a streak was not going to form. I think I need A and B blocks. B needs to be the same configuration but with darks in the light position and vice versa. 

I made a few Easy Breezy blocks. This is an RSC project from last year. I only need a few more blocks to meet my goal. 

I also made some Four Patches with the blue scraps and black. That is in prep for Buckeye Beauty blocks. I need to make some HSTs from blue 3.5 inch scraps so maybe that is the scrap box I will tackle next. The Buckeye Beauty blocks were a RSC project started last year and I think I am only half way to my goal so I will continue to make these from scraps in 2026.

Oh...one last thing with blue 2 inch scraps..I put some aside to make 25 patch blocks. A few months ago when I was working with orphan blocks I noticed I had thirty 25 patch blocks in the red,white and blue orphanage. I made those blocks several times when I had blue scraps leftover from making patriotic quilts. I decided to pull those out and make more blocks and add sashings for a comfort quilt. 

And sew on...

****

I have been feeling dizzy the last few days do I have been taking it easy and napping a lot. I finally feel a little better today. Not sure what that was all about!

Green Scraps - Chapter I

Rail Fence

4.5 inch finished.

Green is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for the month of May.

I decided to look at my bin of 2 inch width scraps which mostly contains short lengths of scraps. Last month I started making these Rail Fence blocks with black centers from the longer scraps at least 10 inches long so I could cut two rails. So now with lastt month's red blocks I have 36 blocks. At this point I am just going to make blocks with the longer scraps in the bin and decide how many I need for a quilt  later. My main goal is to empty the 2 inch width scrap bin. 

Easy Breezy

6 inch blocks

I now have 42 toward a goal of 120 or 130

This is another block I started making a few months ago. I have a little bag of sets of four 2 inch squares I'm using for these as well as any 2 inch width scraps 8 inches or so in length. 

Buckeye Beauty blocks

6 inch finished

These blocks are new this month. I first made four patches from 2 inch squares in green plus black scraps. These were cut from 2 inch scraps at least 4 inches in length for two identical squares. Then I made green and black HSTs from green scraps - some came from the 3.5 inch scrap bin and some were cut from scrap chunks.  Two HSTs and two Four Patches combined to make Buckeye Beauty blocks. 

All blocks will have color of month alternating with black scraps. 

25 Patch

7.5 inch finished

Another new block this month is a 25 patch made with 2 inch squares. 

Hopefully all of these blocks using various lengths of 2 inch scraps will empty out my 2 inch width scrap bin. 

Boo Boo Patches

3 x 6

I now have 204 blocks toward my goal of 260 blocks.

These came out of the 1.5 inch width scrap bin. I've been making them for a long time. Maybe this year I will reach my goal. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

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. 

 

Singing The Blues - Verse IV

Sawtooth Stars with Orphan Block Centers

(Orphan Curtis)

10 inch blocks

I now have 12 of 24 blocks

Last year I was cleaning out a box of  inch width scraps and made 10 quilt tops. This was one of the tops that didn't get finished. I did set aside in a ziplock bag enough 5.5 inch unfinished orphan blocks and 3 inch width scraps enough for star points.  This month I pulled out the orphans that were matched up with blue scraps for the star points. I'm using the same background on all blocks in the quilt. 

Four Patch

5 inch

Made with 3 inch squares. 

I have 45 blocks and 96 is the goal. 

Sixteen Patch

10 inch

Strip pieced with 3 inch width novelty scraps.

I'm using only reds, blues and yellows. 

I have 10 out of a goal of 24 blocks. 

Someone gave me ten 25 Patch blocks made of 2.5 inch squares.  I decided to make 14 more blocks for a kiddo sized top in a 4 x 6 layout. At first I thought I would make enough for a larger quiltt of 48 blocks but I've used up most of my 2.5 inch squares.  I did go through my squares to see if I had enough for a blue block. After that I went through the squares to look for 25 of the same color and made those blocks. 

So now I have 16 blocks. 

And now I'm thinking I might alternate the blocks with 10 inch Sawtooth Stars and go for the goal of 48 blocks - 24 Stars and 24 Patches. 

Bits of Bricks

From a Youtube video. I rarely watch them because my computer takes forever to load them and then they are sometimes broken up; however, someone sent me the link so thought I would check it out. 

These units finish at 2.5 x 8.5 and consist of two 3 x 6 inch rectangles. 

The units get staggered a little so there are no seams to match.   I will be adding a 3.5 inch unfinished scrappy border. 

I made a few last year to use up some 3 inch width scraps. 

I made these units this month with blue and pink 3 inch rectangles I cut last year. 

I haven't trimmed off the flippy corners yet so they wouldn't stick to my little batting covered cutting mat so I could take a pic. I'm going to use those waste triangles as some points on Wonky Stars. 

I now have 48 of 84 units. 

I still have blue scraps and have pieces for more blocks cut from mostly 3.5 inch width blue scraps so I think I will be Singing Verse V of the Blues next week

And sew on..

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday