Tiny pieces

This week the pieces going through my machine have been tiny!  My 1-inch bag is nearly empty, as is my 1.5-inch bag of scraps.   First I worked on some log cabin/courthouse steps alternate blocks to a sew-along from Quilts by Cheri.  They used 1-1/4 inch strips.  An unusual size for me, but it really cleared out my scrap bag!  I've been procrastinating on the applique blocks that go with them.

Courthouse steps 10-inch blocks

Last week I gave away my little mini log cabin quilt, so I made another one.  That used up most of my 1-inch strips.

Log Cabins 11x14.5 inches

Cutting up the 1-inch strips gave me a bunch of little 1-inch square leftover pieces.  A quilt in this month's American Patchwork and Quilting caught my eye.  It featured cheddar blocks in a 9-patch arrangement.  I had some bright cheddar yellow in the 1.5-inch bag that just seems too bright to use for anything.  Bingo!

My interpretation of their Cheddar Broken Dishes quilt used itty-bitty 4-patch blocks with the cheddar yellow.  Those 4-patch blocks finish at 1-inch!  Seriously tiny! It's not easy to work with pieces that small. They tend to twist on me as they go through the machine, and things get wonky.  But it's fun to get those scrap bags cleared out!  I even used up some leftover binding pieces to make a multi-colored binding.

Cheddar 4-in-9 patch  18x22 inches
Binding is just pinned for now.

No more tiny projects for a while.  Nothing left to work with in those scrap bags!  If there's a mini quilt that catches my eye, I'll have to up-size it and start using scraps from my 2-inch bags.  Truly though, I need to get motivated to quilt up some UFO's instead of constantly starting every new project that catches my eye.

Fruit on the table

Last week's table runner from a border fabric was so much fun that I did another one!

There was one more piece of border fabric in my stash - fruit this time.

 It cut into five identical blocks, and here's how they ended up.

There's not quite enough for the backing, so some creative piecing happened.  Just have the quilting left to do!

From border to table runner

leftovers

While attempting to clean off my desk this week I came across a new-to-me quilting book:  'Wonderful 1 Fabric Quilts" by Kay Nickols, 2007 AQS.

I had picked it up this summer at a book sale that benefits our police department outreach program.  Usually the kaleidoscope-type patterns need 6 or 8 identical pattern repetitions to work.  But, in the back of this book is a table runner and it can work with as few as 4 repeats.

Coincidentally, a while later I was going through a bin of fabric in my laundry room.  Out popped an 18x64-inch piece of border fabric left over from a skirt I made, oh, maybe 30 years ago.  The repeat was 15 inches, and I could get exactly 4 identical blocks out of it.  Score!  I was off and cutting.

It was only after I had stitched together the pieces that I realized I forgot to take a 'before' photo of the border fabric.  Pooh!  There wasn't much leftover, but this might give you an idea.  There was a thin sliver left.

The four identical 15-inch squares were cut diagonally in an X.  Then, by arranging the resulting triangles in mirror image patterns I came up with a pretty good plan.  Had to be careful because all the edges are on the bias.  A little spray starch helped a lot!

It quilted up quickly last night, and I hand stitched binding while in the waiting room during my FIL's eye doctor appointment today.  All done, and at home on the cedar chest in the living room!

20 x 50 One fabric table runner. Super easy!