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...

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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!

A Few Aqua Scraps

Buckeye Beauty

6 inch finished

Buckeye Beauty

6 inch finished

Puss in the Corner

( aka Easy Breezy)

6 inch finished

Aqua is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge ( RSC) color of the month.

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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Finished a book! Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops by Jen Campbell. It was a quick read and good for a few smiles. If I wrote the book I probably would have called it Stupidest Things Customers Say In Bookshops. 

Heavy rains coming so I guess I won't be out in the gardens today. I might be forced to do a little housework then reward myself with some sewing time. 

Orange Scraps Part II

Buckeye Beauty

6 inch

Orange is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for June so I dug into my orange 2 and 3.5 inch width orange scraps to make these blocks.

Easy Breezy

6 inch blocks

Made with 2 inch width scraps

Buckeye Beauty

8 inch

Made with 2.5 and 4.5 inch width scraps.

The 8 inch Buckeye Beauty blocks are combined with low volume scraps and the 6 inch blocks (first photo) are combined with black scraps.

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

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

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

 

A Whole Lot Of Scrap Busting

Shoofly

10.5 inch blocks

Red is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for this month so I've been mostly working with red scraps to make my blocks. Then I noticed I was close to my target on several block sets so some other colors crept in. 

Shoofly

10.5 inch blocks

I have been making these from 4 inch width scraps since last year. I have a box of scraps that width - most have been given to me by others - that I've been trying to empty. To make the Shoofly blocks I've been pulling out the longest strips in the color of the month and one other color. 

My goal was 35 blocks and now I have made that goal and I have a complete block set for a 5 x 7 layout. For now the block set will go into the SAR (Some Assembly Required) bin. 

Now I can mark this block off my list of RSC projects. 

Broken Dishes

7 inch blocks

With shorter 4 inch width pieces I've been making Broken Dishes blocks in the RSC color of the month plus one other color. I've also been making these blocks since last year. 

This week after I made my blocks with red scraps I noticed I only needed 12 more blocks toward my goal of 88 blocks...

...so I made 12 more blocks from the remaining scraps in the 4 inch width scrap box. 

Now this is another block set completed and ready to go to the SAR bin.  They will be set 8 x 11. 

Hollow Nine

10.5 inch blocks

These are made with 4 inch squares. 

I made 3 blocks with red squares and then decided to look through my cut squares to see if I had enough squares in any colors to make more. 

So that's all I could make with what was already in my 4 inch cut squares bag. My target is 24 blocks and now I have 22. I'll look through the rest of the scraps in the box and cut more squares for those two blocks and get them made so these can go into the SAR bin. 

So now I have completed almost all of the RSC projects I had going with 4 inch width scraps but I still have lots of smaller bits in the box. So now I need a plan for those. 

The smallest pieces will go into 4 x 2.5 bricks. I recently started making Bricks and Stones units using black 2.5 inch squares and 4 x 2.5 bricks as a way to use up some smaller 2.5 inch width scraps. 

The strip on the bottom I usually make with the pieces less than a square when I make RSC blocks. I save those up and eventually make a quilt with them when I get enough strips. I think my next one might have strips of varying widths alternating with strips of Flying Geese.

16 Patch

6 inch blocks

RSC color alternating with green scraps in the blocks. 

I think I have been making these as an RSC project for a couple of years from whatever shows up in my 2 inch width scraps that is long enough for a block.  When I started these I had a lot of green scrap chunks to use up so that is how I decided on green as the alternating color. 

I started the month with 111 blocks toward my goal of 120 or 130 blocks. After I made my blocks with red I noticed I only needed a few more so made a total of 19 blocks.  I must not have taken a picture of the other 7 blocks I made this week even though I propped them up for a photo.Well, anyway, I made my goal of 130 blocks to be set 10 x 13. This is another block to check off my RSC project list and will also join the other block sets completed this week in the SAR bin. 

Easy Breezy

6 inch blocks

I started making these at the beginning of the year with 2 inch width scraps. I now have 42 towards a goal of 120 or 130. 

Rail Fence

4.5 inch blocks

New Project

After I completed the 16 Patches made with 2 inch width scraps I assessed what was left in that scrap bin and decided to start making  Rail Fence blocks with black centers. 

Cheerios

10.5 inch blocks

I've been making these since last year and set aside any sets of 4 - 4.5 inch squares I come across to make these blocks. I think most of the squares I used in the red ones I made this month came from others. 

This is one of those blocks I make until scraps run out or I get tired of making them. Then I divide them up into different comfort quilts. I now have 73 blocks.  How about that...I could use 20 in a child's quilt and 48 in a twin sized quilt and have some blocks left over! Maybe that's what I'll do!

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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

My husband John is the treasure. In June we will celebrate 52 years of marriage. 

John has dysphagia (difficulty swallowing food or drink) caused by radiation he had many years ago for oropharyngeal cancer. He ended up in the hospital a couple of times a couple of years ago and one of the times they put in a G-tube and the other time he was malnourished, dehydrated and had aspiration pneumonia. After they put in the G-tube he was bolus feeding (injecting liquid diet into tube with syringe several times a day); however, he could not tolerate that rate of feeding and was aspirating most of the liquid into his lungs.  Then they put him on a feeding pump to slowly pump liquids into him over a 12 hour period. And he has to stay sitting at about a 30 degree angle during that time and an hour or so afterwards so he spends most of his days and nights in a recliner. He is still weak but since he has gained a little strength and weight he is able to get around without a walker; however, a short walk outside or anywhere else wears him out. 

Yesterday he had a visit with the pulmonologist, who tries to keep him from more hospital visits with aspiration pneumonia, and Dr. said he is making a referral to a speech therapist. They are hoping he can start doing some kinds of exercises and work up to maybe being able to swallow soup without aspirating. In the meantime Dr. said to start reading out loud and/or singing in the shower. John seemed happy with the news that he might someday be able to swallow water or soup without aspirating or coughing it up. He is rather frustrated with being tied to a food pump for so many hours a day. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) Blocks

Boo Boo Patch

3 x 6 inch

Made with 1.5 inch width scraps.

I now have 168 blocks out of a goal of 260. 

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color of the month is yellow. I don't have many yellow scraps but do have a whole lot of different RSC blocks in the works so I'm spending this month getting caught up on some blocks I didn't get around to making with pink (January) and blue (February).

I call them Boo Boo patches because a long time ago I meant to measure and cut my strip sets for 18 patch blocks like are in my recent finish.  What a big mistake (Boo Boo) that was! But I decided the blocks were cute and have been making them with 1.5 inch scraps long enough ever since. 

16 Patch

RSC color alternating with green

6 inch blocks

made with 2 inch width scraps.

I now have 109 blocks toward a goal of 120 or 130. 

Easy Breezy

6 inch blocks

Made with 2 inch width scraps.

RSC color +1.

I started making these this year and have 29 blocks toward a goal of 120 or 130.

8 Patch

8 inch blocks

Made with 2.5 inch width scraps

I now have 37 blocks toward a goal of 63. 

All of these blocks are going into comfort quilts that will end up close to 60 x 80. 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday