Using Red Scraps

If someone had told me last week what I would be doing this week, I would have chuckled, maybe even scoffed to myself, and said, I doubt it.  And with an moment's thought would have said, Definitely not.  But here I am.

My red scraps want to be used.  Many of the scraps are 2" strips and I couldn't come up with a way to make economy or square-in-square blocks (except really small ones).  I decided to make double four-patch blocks using brown scraps as the background color.  (Please forgive the flash photos.  It's still grey in Ohio.) 

The block are cut at 2" and 3½".  I like them.  I like the brown background with the tumble of red squares.  But there was just something missing.

So I decided to make some smaller four-patch blocks.

The little guys are cut at 1¼" and finish at ¾".  Never in my life would I have thought I would be cutting and sewing such tiny pieces of fabric for a quilt.  But aren't they adorable?!  They're probably sweeter in real life, where you can actually see how tiny they are.

Here are both sizes mixed.  I'll need to make more -- lots more -- before choosing a layout.

As I was pressing them they made me think of rubies on a string.

I have three thoughts:
The next quilt I make needs to have more than two colors.
This will not be a quick quilt to make.  (I was hoping for quick and done.)
This quilt will not use up all the red scraps.  I'll have to make a second red scrap quilt, maybe a one-patch alternating with whites/naturals/creams.

Do you have a favorite scrap pattern if you're using just two colors?

I'm linking this post to
> Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework
> Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
> To Do Tuesday at Stitch All Things 

--Nancy.
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An Assortment of Red Scraps, Pluses, and a Book

One of the hardest things about quilting for me is choosing a pattern and then beginning, especially when I have a selection of scraps I want to use up.  I have this group of red scraps.... Some are 1" to 2" wide strips, other pieces are larger. 

Some of these fabrics could be from the 1930s through 1950s, some are from the 1980s, and some are recently new.

There is such a range of reds, from almost orange to almost purple.  I'm trying to decide whether I can use them together in a quilt and, if so, what quilt pattern will "accept" them and create a unified quilt.  And which other color(s) to use with them.

Ideas for blocks for these scraps include

• one patch with reds alternating with lights/naturals or golds or browns
• nine-patch with any of those color combinations above
• Square-in-a-Square block with reds in the centers and browns on the outside
• double nine-patch in reds and browns with browns in the corners, or reds and creams with reds in the corners
• double four-patch
• housetop blocks with a center square and one border around it in reds and lights or reds and browns, alternating the center and outer colors from one block to another
• snowballs in reds and another color

Will these fabrics actually work together in a scrap quilt?  They are from different eras and there are so many different tints and shades of red.  Some of these fabrics are already small pieces.  If I have several of the same print, I'm happy to sew them together to create a larger piece, but there is only one small piece of some of them. 

I have some thoughts on another quilt that I haven't yet started sewing.  At the beginning of last year my nearest local quilt shop offered a pattern and fabrics for these blocks if we returned every two weeks to get them.  I have all the fabrics but I haven't started on the blocks yet. 

I'm not a huge fan of orange and now that I have all the fabrics, it occurs to me that the oranges might look great with browns and/or blacks for an autumn quilt. 

Then, instead of orange crosses/pluses I could make yellow ones.  I have an over-abundance of yellow fabrics (mostly purchased in odd lighting that caused them to look light and creamy).  The light fabrics we received are much lighter than the ones shown in the photo above.  I think the blocks finish at 6" so the quilt is not large.

I've been so unmotivated the past week or two.  I'm happy to sit and hand quilt (building up callouses on my fingers) and do little more (except the essentials, of course).  I hope finally deciding on the reds will propel me into action.  Do you ever feel unmotivated?  I have a friend who says, "Doing is better than dreaming."  I need to quit dreaming and do.  Just do.

I have been reading Victoria The Queen:  An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird.  I think it is excellently written and is a joy to read.  I have ancestors who lived in England during the reign of Victoria which makes the book all the more interesting as I imagine what their lives might have been like.

I hope you're enjoying life!

--Nancy.
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