Sewing up Scraps in the Living Room

I haven't spent much time downstairs at all lately. I didn't get my non-quilting projects done, but I'm hoping to get them done late next week.  

Lately life has been much more about family, and a lot less about sewing. I'll take it! DH and I spent a couple days away visiting two of the grandkids, then we had a couple others stay overnight. Unfortunately one of those was sick the whole time, running a temp of 103 and complaining of a horrible headache but no other typical virus signs. DH went out and got a covid test since headache is the number 1 symptom of the Delta variant, but thankfully, the test was negative. DH and I are both fully vaccinated, but we figured if it was Covid we needed to take stronger precautions. We were all washing our hands like crazy just in case, but if the test had come out positive I would have masked up, even in the house. 

The sick grandkid is feeling much better last we heard, and DH and I seem to be fine. We're celebrating July birthdays with a different one of our kids families tomorrow, which I would have cancelled if it had been Covid or had either of us gotten sick. Trying to responsibly visit with people is certainly a challenge these days. 

I'm supposed to have three grandkids for a couple days this coming week as well, so again, sewing is taking a backseat. 

Now, just because I haven't gotten any deadline sewing done, doesn't mean I haven't gotten any sewing done. 

^This is my stack of red/cream blocks, which I am currently sewing into four-patches before I try laying them out. I figured 12" blocks would be easier to lay out than 6" blocks. 

I save 10.5" squares to piece into quilt backings by color family. I was dividing up the blocks by color to see what I had, and I pulled out the blocks that didn't have enough of one color to make a backing, and I cut those into strips and made rail fence blocks from them. Well, I ended up with 90 blocks, and I'll pair each one of these blocks with a solid background block, and I'll end up with 4 HST's from each pair. That's 360 HST's! I'm thinking 3 throw quilts laid out 10x12. I was planning on using a dark grey solid, but I'm not sure I have enough to cut 90 10.5" blocks from the piece I have. I might go with a different solid on each throw quilt instead. I'll have to measure the fabric I was thinking of and decide from there. 

I know we all have our favorite YouTube quilters, and since I've been on a scrap busting spree for over a year now, I've watched lots of videos on scrapbuster quilts. Karen from Just Get It Done Quilts has some great ideas, and after watching this video I decided to use one of her patterns to make a couple quilts. I've completely busted my 2" cut strips, I've seriously dented my 1.5" cut strips, probably down by half, but I'm just starting on my 2.5" cut strips. I was least worried about using those, because there are jelly roll patterns everywhere, and I have several books for using jelly rolls as well, so I knew ideas were easy to come by. 

With some quick pulling of strips while the grands were here, I ended up making 55 blocks, and that will go for one boyish "almost twin" set 5x7 and one girlish throw set 4x5. Since the blocks I decided to make just needed one WOF strip that reads solid, and one WOF strip that is a print, I had a good time experimenting with different combos. The blocks are so simple, and with large enough pieces that it was really easy to see the way a different background can completely change a print. Most of the blocks I only have one of that print, but I did have a few that I used more than one strip of, making sure to pair it with a different background each time. 

The block on the left has a peach background, and that really bleaches out the bright print. The block made with the burgundy background makes the print look much darker and richer. Both are pretty, but create a different feel. 

With this pair, again, I find the brown bleaches the print out a bit, while the dark green makes the print look darker too. 

Even with fairly similar backgrounds, your can see how the colors they bring out of the print make for a different feel. 

I made a couple of these blocks from 2 fat quarter strips rather than WOF strips. That meant I had to do some poverty piecing. 

If you look closely you can see which set of rectangle pairs is made up of two sections, but I think in the final quilts it won't be noticeable at all. 

So, I might not be working on my deadline stuff, and I may only be sewing for short bursts of time in the living room, but it all adds up! I think once August arrives and school starts back up I'll be back to the deadline projects. For now I'll enjoy the grands and stick with sewing 15-20 minutes at a time.