Moving out Those Scraps!

Happy Weekend! Even as a retiree, there is something about the weekend that says RELAX. If I’m being honest, the rest of the week is often that way too. No surprise there. But something about the weekend, when you know that most of your family and friends are off too, makes it special. It’s when we try to get together with family but avoid errands and public places.

My focus in the studio this week was to finish up three little quilts for Quilts for Kids. I accomplished that, but there was a reason for doing them early in the month. I’m really light on aqua and teal scraps for this month’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I knew some scraps in those colorways (or close to those colorways) were squirreled away in some of the scrappy quilt “kits” I make up to assemble into future quilts. 

But let me back up a minute. Whenever I get a batch of scraps, I sort them into groups that go well together, then put them in a gallon-size (or larger) baggie. For every month of the RSC, I pull out baggie kits that contain that month’s color and work to make those into quilts. So this month I made the quilts early on so that I could funnel any leftover teal or aqua scraps into my RSC block-making. See? A method to my madness!

So let’s start with the two blocks that I did sew first - the elephants.

Aren’t they cute?!?  I was actually hoping to have more in this range of colors, so I may resort to cutting up something larger, like a fat quarter or (gasp!) half yard. We’ll see. Shhhhhh!

Last week I gave you a sneak peek of two of the three quilts, so let’s start with those. First up is Dinos.

Dinos finished at 42x48 and was quilted in a cross-hatch pattern with a serpentine stitch. The back is a plain light blue cotton sheet. I had this kit sitting in my stash last year, but didn’t have enough of the polka dot fabric to make it. But then last October when I taught that scrappy workshop at our QFK meeting, someone gave me another hunk of it. Yay! It was enough to complete the original plan I’d drawn.

The next quilt is Mermaids, and again was cobbled together from matching scraps donated to me over the last couple years.

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Mermaids measures 38.5x43.5”, was quilted with loops (my go-to pattern; I just zone out!) and the backing is the second half of the same huge blue sheet used on Dinos. 

The final quilt was made from leftover jelly roll strips. Some were width-of-fabric strips and some were not. But I needed to use them all to get a decent length. So I added in solid blocks of color - also from scraps - to extend strips where needed. Bonus - it added a lot of interest to what would have been a pretty plain quilt. 

That center purple block isn’t as bold as the photo makes it look. Each color block got its own quilting treatment. Of course, the purple shows up the most and it’s the worst one. I was practicing my ribbon candy quilting and it definitely needs work! But other motifs turned out better. That yellow block? It was the only scrap that was wide and long enough, but it was too bright. So I turned it over and used the back. Perfect!

This little quilt finished at 38 x 45”.

I’m still participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin, and was able to finish the fourth round. This week, hostess Wendy chose the Signautre Block (aka Indian Hatchet). Here is my quilt with this round included. It currently measures 32.5x40” with two rounds to go. 

The last photo I’m including is the scrappy contents of the “scrap kit” I’ll be assembling into a quilt this week. I thought there was more aqua in it, but it’s really more of a Seafoam green (and the Eighties called and wants their Seafoam and dusty pinks back!)

Some of these scraps literally did not make the cut, like the skinny strips and the patterned green. The rest are cut and ready to be sewn. Stay tuned! I’ll also be focusing on my now-meatier pile of aqua scraps to make some Bullseye Log Cabins, some Bear Paws and some crumb tumblers and blocks.

Linking up to Scrappy Saturday.