It seems this may be my year for really using up small scraps. Two Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this week involved finding uses for some of the smaller scraps in the scrap boxes.*
I have a lot of two inch strips and squares left over from various projects or just cutting up scraps into usable pieces following Bonnie Hunter's Scrap-Users System. Last month I pulled a lot of purple squares and started piecing 4-patch blocks. I did the same for aqua squares this month. I don't have definitive plans for these right now, but 4-patches are a versatile quilt building block and I'm sure they will find a happy use eventually.
This is a small portion of my very large collection of 1.5 inch strips. Several years ago, I decided to start piecing 1.5 inch strips in anticipation of making a "Lego" quilt (tutorial by Tonya Ricucci).
Piecing bits of 1.5 inch strips into longer sections is great mindless sewing, and before long I had a laundry basket full of pieced strips ready to be assembled into blocks.
I finally stitched up some blocks last summer. I came to the conclusion this was going to be a very long-term project, because assembling the blocks was just not that much fun. Those pieced strips are going to age for awhile longer. And in while they're aging, I'm going to attempt to use up some of the un-pieced stash of 1.5 inch parts and pieces.
I pulled the shortest bits of aqua 1.5 inch strips I could find, sliced them into squares and arranged a 49-patch block with white squares on the diagonal. Despite the number and size of squares, the block went together quickly. I decided to go back and repeat the process for last month's RSC color. Once I use up the short bits of 1.5 inch strips, I can do some speedier piecing by sewing longer strips together and slicing them up.
For more scrappy aqua inspiration, check out the link-up at Soscrappy.
*Disclaimer: I don't really like working with scraps smaller than 1.5 inches, so my version of "small" may not be the same as yours!
