Wrangling the Blues

It's Saturday, and that means it's time to talk about Rainbow Scrap progress!

Angela posted two blocks this week for the Rainbow Sampler:  Tic Tac Toe (left) and Monkey Wrench.  Or Churn Dash, the name I usually associate with this block.  Churn Dash is one of my favorite quilt blocks; I could easily get carried away and decide to make an entire Churn Dash rainbow quilt!  I must resist....I must resist...

I have a huge collection of 2" square scraps, so it was a no-brainer to make a 16 patch block.  The 16 patch is a great scrap-buster and building block for a variety of quilts, so I'll keep adding these in all the rainbow colors.

I was inspired to try my first wonky star this week.  There are lots of names for this technique: Liberated Stars (Gwen Marston) or Maverick Starts (Bonnie Hunter), and just as many tutorials.  My star has a crumb-pieced center and I used triangle shaped scraps for the star points.  Everything in this block came from the crumb jar or scrap bin, so I'm a happy camper.  

This will finish as a 9 inch block.  I think I'd be happier with a slightly smaller size block, but I thought the crumb center needed to be at least 3 inches to avoid too many seams and teeny-tiny pieces.  Maybe my next attempt will have a 4 patch center instead of crumbs.

Last but not least, I have been working on marking the sewing lines for the Carpenter's Wheel block.  Even though the pieces for the block are rotary cut, it's necessary to mark the intersecting seam lines to assist in sewing the dreaded "Y" seams.  I want to try to have the block all pieced by next Saturday; then I'll have a better idea of how the whole process will work.

There's lots more blue scrappy goodness to be seen at today's Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up, so I hope you'll check out the inspiration there!