Playing with scraps

I have been playing with scraps and strips the last couple of days. I started out to "make fabric" for an Anvil block to send to Victoria (Bumblebeans)and the blocks for this were on the wall above my sewing machine. Oh look, the colors are the same as what I have out on the table, there is only one block to finish, it will only take a few minutes. Well, it took a few hours, for a number of reasons. I was also cooking dinner and  cleaning up after dinner, and I had to do some ripping and I had to remake one of the finished blocks and no one ever said I was fast. I found this last year on FilmintheFridge blog and I thought I would make a large quilt. That didn't happen and it never will; there are just too many decisions  about fabric choices and the width of the blocks and I was really slow. I like what I have and it is enough.


So after I finished that one and tidied up the mess, I decided to make the Anvil block to send to Victoria. Click on her name to see some of the Anvil quilts and for a link to the tutorial. I am going to make another block but I am not going to make one large piece of fabric to cut into 1- 6 I/2 inch square and 5 - 4 inch squares. I am gong to make one piece big enough to trim to 6 1/2 inches and 5 pieces big enough to trim to 4 inches and I will make the HST's by layering 2 squares and stitching one both sides of a diagonal line and then I will trim the HST's to 3 1/2 inches. I found that by making one big piece I ended up with several seams coming together just where I didn't want them. I think I will also use something with more contrast for the background fabric. I might use larger pieces so I don't end up with so many tiny pieces in the HST's. I see that Victoria is asking for blocks with a blue background. No big decision problems there for me, I have only a few blue fabrics that could be used for background. You can see I missed that blue background request for the first block.

This has been a learning experience for me. I have made a lot of quilts with "made fabric" squares but to cut up a piece to make components for a block requires a different approach, for me anyway.

So..... I will make another block and if any of the Diva's would like to make one or two, I will collect them at our next meeting and send them.