My new series - Getterdone quilts

Get what??

Lately I've been going through my stash and trying to think of patterns that will help me use more of it, deliberately.  I want fast and easy patterns to make quilts that are also attractive!  These won't take the place of my regular stuff, it's just a way of getting quilts done fast - I'm calling them my "Getterdone!"  or "Get 'er Done!" quilts (what?  nobody ever watched the Blue Collar comedy tour?  good!).  And since I've just given them an official name, they deserve their own series, eh?  My GED series as it were.

I showed a fourpatch a couple days ago that did  use up  some... but it seems to me I created almost as many scraps as I used!  For this next one I thought I'd use "made" fabric (on the 15 minute blog Victoria has instructions on how she does this, and on Quiltville Bonnie shows how to make crumb blocks).

I started out with yardage from "made" fabric..

isn't that a large pile?  And that's not even all I had... and nope, I don't know how many actual yards there are because I didn't think to measure it before I cut into it!

I wanted my blocks to finish at 8-1/2" so I cut a 10-inch background square, made a diagonal slash through it and inserted a strip from the made fabric (from now on I'll refer to it as scrap yardage)...

I probably could have started with a smaller background square but I didn't want to fudge the cutting too much for the finished size; I have more fabric!

Then I slashed it, inserted a strip, slashed it, sewed in a third strip...

My goal was to have at least 2 inserted strips in each piece - some blocks have just two, some have three.  There was no rhyme or reason for how I cut the slashes, I just tried to make the blocks interesting!  Did I mind that the strips didn't match up when I rejoined?  Nope!

After slashing and inserting my scrap yardage strips, I trimmed down to 8-1/2"

Doesn't look like too much all alone, does it.  I even kept the cut off bits to use in more scrap yardage.  Recycle, repurpose, reuse...

Ta daa, my final blocks...

I made 42 of em!  I'm setting the blocks smack-on together, no sashing between.  I've sewn most of the top together already. 

You're probably thinking this will be too white and plain, but I don't think so - it'll look really great when I get the borders on.  I deliberately chose this light white-and-black background fabric because I wanted the strips to stand out.  A busier fabric would have competed too much with the strips - I want this to have impact!  Also, I had about 2-1/2 yards of this fabric and I used a lot of it.

You almost can't go wrong with this pattern, it goes together really really easy!  I made the scrap yardage here and there, when I didn't want to think about measuring or scant-quarter or reading instructions... but yet I wanted to get my hands into some fabric - some of you know what I mean.  You just grab some pieces and sew them onto other pieces until you get the size you need for your project.  Or until you get tired of sewing.  Just make lots and lots of yardage, you'll use it sooner or later!

The one thing to be aware of with scrap yardage is, you'll have lots of seams, there's no getting around it.  When you're sewing the bits together they get turned this way and that, it will not be all straight of grain... there's no way of getting around that either.  So... if you're willing to accept those limitations, you can have lots of fun making and using scrap yardage!

Sew forth and sew on til later