I'm pretending it's late on Saturday evening as I write this post. I was just too tired to actually write it last night, so I'm playing catch-up this morning. All in all, it was a good week for the blues...blue scraps, that is!
I indulged in more creative playtime this week, and came away with a smaller wonky star block. The four patch center works great for using up additional scraps, but allows for a down-sized block.
Size comparison: the bottom block was made with 3" squares to accommodate a crumb-pieced center. I found the finished 9" block to be too large, so I scaled down to 2" squares for a 6" finished block. I've got another idea for crumb blocks, so all the crumbs will still get used - eventually!
More creative playtime! Angela posted the instructions for a 54-40 or Fight block for the Rainbow Scrap Sampler. The instructions call for using the Tri-Recs ruler, a tool I owned, but had never used. That ruler is now one of my favorites, and I can't wait to try some more blocks constructed in this manner.
Another of this week's Rainbow Sampler blocks. I changed the orientation of the fabrics to feature the blue & white print that looks like transferware plates.
Another RSC Sampler block: Happy Squares. Indeed!
Blue sampler blocks to date. It's been fun keeping up with these blocks - most of them seldom take more than an hour to complete, so it's not difficult to finish one in the evening before end of the day fatigue really sets in!
Here is the reason I didn't get my RSC post written on Saturday. I was determined to finish piecing my first Carpenter's Wheel block - my challenge to myself for this year's RSC. This version of Carpenter's Wheel uses diamonds and machine piecing. The finished block is 18 inches. The drawback is the diamonds are pieced one seam at a time, essentially using the machine in the same manner as hand-piecing. Slightly faster than hand-piecing, but tedious! I'm sure if I kept playing with the process, I'd come up with ways to speed things up, but I don't think I'm going to keep playing with this process.
My plan for this week is to try making the CW block using HSTs. There are lots of instructions to be found online; Quilter's Cache has a good example.
I enjoy hand-piecing a great deal, but I don't really want to hand-piece 12 of these blocks. Maybe I'll make just one giant block, but probably not as part of the RSC.
Anyway, there's no lack of inspiration when it comes to fabric and quilt blocks. I'm going to go link up with the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge stitchers at SoScrappy, so do check out their inspiration as well!
