Scrap Block Making - A Tale of Two Blocks

Time in my space is always more enjoyable when I'm playing. Play for me is some kind of challenge - a new technique, a new block, or a scenario that I set up for myself. This time around I decided I wanted to use up the rest of the scraps I won from Scott Hansen at Blue Nickel Studios. 

There's almost nothing more FUN than playing with someone else's scraps!

The block above is my original layout for the block I'm calling pink and green. a little while I ago I made the mini liberated churn dash that's in the middle of this block. I challenged myself to keep going with the pink and green scraps. The bird fabric is from an older fabric line by Tula Pink. 

Here's the block in progress. As pieces start to get sewn together, there are usually little gaps that need filled in with different fabrics. In this block I like started to change placement of the fabrics {compare to photo above}. This gave me the opportunity to include a little piece of selvage in the block!

My final block ended up a little bigger - and bolder! I decided it was too 'light', it didn't feel grounded or finished. I looked through my stash and actually found some pink solids. These colours are mostly hues - adding white or black to red or green. I rarely use these hues so it's fun to play with them. It's a challenge for me to think about how the colours and fabrics are effecting each other and how they make me feel. This block makes me smile! I'm considering adding a bit more to it and turning it into a baby quilt. Right now it measures about 18 inches square.

This is the initial layout for the second block. It started when I pulled out the lime dots! They aren't a hue of green but made by adding yellow to green - it didn't match the other block so it became it's own:)

You can see in this photo that I was literally playing with blocks on top of blocks on my cutting table. The Rock and Romance block I showed in this post is underneath the lime dot block. To the right you can see the pink and green block. The lime dot block is actually laid out on the plastic bag containing my Halloween 1904 block! Yes, I was kind of in the moment, going with the flow as they say, which ended up with layers of blocks on my cutting table.

Another reason I tend to have more than one thing on the go is that I don't like wasting thread. Since I don't currently have a leader and ender project going {a project that you would put under the needle between parts of a project you are working on so you don't have to cut the thread after each piece} I just kept finding MORE things to sew!

Okay. Back to the block. While I was making the block something familiar happened. It seems that when I'm making these 'slab' like blocks, I change my mind and switch things around. 

You can see that it happened here in the slab blocks I made for Calgary.

I think it's because I start to reconsider all the small pieces being put on the same side of the block. In this case I was also able to spread out the dark rust so that it wasn't all in the same part of the block.

Again I did some final changes near the end of construction. That's part of the fun of making these blocks, you are always re-evaluating and auditioning fabrics. 

I ended up adding a bit of selvage in this block too! Can you see it?


That's the end of my 7 project whirlwind day in my quilting space.


The last one is actual a finished project for a new pattern I'm working on! 
I'll share that with you soon. Promise!

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network - go check out some quilting Canadians!
With Joy,

Sarah Vee