A Week of Sorting

 All my 2" squares are finally sorted!

 

Anytime I had 8 squares of one fabric, it was matched to another set of 8 and these will become 16 patches. I stopped counting at 120, suffice it to say there's at least one quilt here, possibly more depending on how I set them. A 16 patch made with 2" cut squares, makes a block that finishes at 6", so even 120 blocks, only makes a quilt that's 60x72 if they are set directly next to each other. I've got more than 120 blocks worth here, and at this point, I don't even have an estimate, nor am I planning on counting them until they are done. There's a lot I can do with 6" blocks, so I'm not concerned about having a bunch of them. 

Some fabrics I had quite a few matching squares, enough that anything I had 32 of, I set aside for 64 patches.

 A 64 patch with 2" cut squares will finish at 12" in a quilt. I don't have enough solids or tonals to use all colored squares for the alternate squares, so I put all the white and cream solids and tone on tones in with these so I can use those when I run out of colors. I'll have whites and creams leftover, but that's totally fine.

Whites and creams with colors on them went with my Scrap Vomit project. I've only got that one block done with the "bullseye" on it, but I did manage to sew up a couple dozen of the alternate blocks this week.

I know a lot of people use lots of colors in their Scrap Vomit quilts, but I have the hardest time using the whites and creams with colors on them. I've made lots of quilts with busy backgrounds, but the longer I quilt, the less I like it. If I want a quilt with a strong background, I prefer using tonals or solids. It's totally my personal preference, and there's nothing wrong with busy backgrounds. I have found I don't mind using the busy neutral fabrics together, if they are going to be a large part of the quilt. This is just another project to bust some scraps I find hard to use. The colors I used for my "bullseye" were simply chosen because I had used wide backs in those colors, and had enough scraps from the widebacks to cut all the squares for this project. If I had been using yardage, I would have chosen something different. 

You might be thinking this bin isn't sorted, but it is. These are mostly squares that don't read as one color. They are half one color and half another, or so multicolored they don't easily fit a category. I'll be using these in a Twirling at the Disco quilt. I'll be digging through the bin choosing my fabrics, so making it nice and neat wasn't necessary. The original quilt was made using 2.5" squares, but I LOVE math, so resizing it comes easily to me. I will need to calm down the scrappy madness, so the last bin of squares will come into play for that quilt too.

These are all sorted by color and can calm down the really multicolored squares for the Twirling at the Disco quilt. 

I also worked on some units with some other pieces found on my rolling carts. I busted some cream TOT 2" squares here too. I'm making a Zipper Quilt with these units, and again I had to resize to accommodate the size of scraps I was trying to bust. It may not look like much, but there are actually 530 units in this bin! I'm thinking ten columns of 53 units each, divided by vertical sashing. If I add a border from yardage, I'll have a twin sized quilt, made mostly from random green and cream scraps buried on my rolling cart! I even have enough cream WOF fabrics on my rolling cart to do the vertical sashing! Since it's all scraps I don't care if the sashing strips match. 

I didn't only work with 2" squares this week. 

My oldest grandson had a skateboarding accident the first day he wore this new shirt. There is a pretty big tear in it, so I patched it, then added two pockets to cover up the patch. 

I finished quilting this quilt yesterday, and I'll be adding that green binding next. 

I cut the scrappy black sashing for this quilt too, and dug into those purple 2" squares for the cornerstones. I haven't started sewing this top together yet, but I'll get there. I think this one will need a border, and I have no idea what to use. 

The Scrap Vomit quilt is really making me want some quilt block design boards. If I can manage to get to the Dollar Store ($1.25 store now) and buy some foam board, I want to make about a dozen of the 14" size. Foam board is all I need, I have everything else. I can get a dozen 14" boards from 6 sheets of foam board, so not too bad. 

I also want to take the time to make some pattern weights. I still have enough plastic pellets left to make these instead of using rice. I decided to make a bunch of pajamas for Christmas, so I'll have a lot of garment sewing coming up! Having some pattern weights should make the cutting easier, so I think it's worth taking the time to make some.