The Summer Scrap Elimination: Week 6

Good morning Scrappers! Today marks Week 6 and the final Scrap Elimination blog of the summer. It has been a busy summer making fun projects out of my scraps and I love the results. This last one is perhaps my favorite, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

This week we are going to be using up 1 1/2" strips. You could also make this project with 2 1/2" strips, you're block would just have larger strips. Here's what you will need to get started!

Materials:

1 1/2" strips at least 7" long

1 1/2 yard of a single fabric (I used a solidish batik to unify the project and create a resting place for the eye)

1. Begin by making strata blocks like we did in the first blog This time you will be stitching six 1 1/2" strips together. Pressing all in one direction and squaring your strata into a 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" square.

2. Cut your squared strata on one diagonal.

3. From your 1 1/2 yard of fabric cut 8 Width of Fabric strips 6 1/2" wide. Subcut your strips into 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" squares. Cut those squares on one diagonal just like your strata blocks. Pair these with your strata blocks to make half square triangle (HST) blocks.

I made 90 half square triangle blocks for my

project. This is an easily expandable quilt, so make as many blocks as you desire. If you're looking to make your project larger, purchase a larger amount of the single fabric.

I pressed all of my blocks toward the solid fabric side.

4. Once you have made your blocks, there are so many ways to organize your half square triangles. I have a few suggestions below, but any HST quilt configurations are possible with these blocks.

You can go simple and put your quilt together with all of your blocks pointed the same direction.

I like this configuration with the appearance of the radiating diamond. It's a great way to handle scrappy HST projects. This design works particularly well if you want a project that finishes as a square.

I ended up choosing this design. I almost made a super long table runner when I set this up on the design wall, but then I tried it as a larger configuration and I really liked the results.

I landed on a set of blocks that would make a quilt 10 rows long and 9 columns wide.

5. Choose your configuration and assemble your quilt top. You may wish to use a design wall to help you with your initial layout choice.

All these lovely open spaces to quilt are making me eager to put this project under my needle and see what results I can achieve!

I hope you have enjoyed the Summer Scrap Elimination as much as I have over the last several weeks and I hope it has helped you to clean out your scrap drawers a little. I wish I could say that my scrap drawers are empty now, but I still have a ways to go to make that happen.

Now I feel like you deserve a chance at a treat for hanging in there with the scrappy program this summer, so pop on over to my Facebook Page and comment on the post for Week 6 of the Summer Scrap Elimination Project. Tell me what your favorite project was this summer and I will enter you in the prize drawing for a free pattern of your choice from my website! I will announce two winners on Sunday. Thank you all so much for joining me.

Keep watching for more summer blogs from the Creative Spaces series.