Scrappy Happy Summer Sew Along - Summer Skies Block!!! ...

Yay!…it's Sew Along Monday

and time for a new

 Scrappy Happy project:)

This next project is a 9 block quilt!

It's perfect for using up 

leftover yardage from another project.

Maybe you have a favorite collection

 of fat quarters that you

 have been hoarding or even 

been afraid to cut into.

Be brave quilters!

Now is the time:)

Summer Skies 

88" x 88"

24" blocks

So lets talk about yardage and fabrics.

I'm using my Vintage Happy 

Cloth Yardage #DC3781 in green 

for my background.

Background needed - 5 1/4 yards

 I decided to use fabrics

 from a few of my collections

 along with my stash of 

Denyse Shmidt fabrics.

They play so well together!

Colors I used; aqua-blue-orange-yellow-pink-green.

I used 9 fat quarters (or 1/4 yard cuts will work too)

and

27 fat eighths (or 1/8th yard cuts will work too)

Our manual for the sew along is my pattern

Cut.Press.Sew.Quilt

We are using the Scrappy Happy block in the 24" size.

My pattern includes cutting for a 6" - 12" - 18" and a 24" block

and directions for sewing all four sizes are the same.

I chose 9 of the fat quarters and cut 9 sets of the (S) rectangles.

Then I chose 9 fat 1/8th's and from each I cut;

 1 - (R) square and 4 (V) squares

From the remaining fat 1/8th's (18 of them);

I cut the (T) and the (U) squares

When I was finished…

I had 9 - 24" Scrappy Happy blocks cut and ready to sew!

Now here is where the fun begins!

At this point my block is not sewn together all the way.

I have sewn it into the 9 sections right before

 completion and laid it out on my design board

just like the block in the pattern.

But wait!!!! …

Remember that I told you we would be doing

 four different settings during our sew along?

Of course I like this setting but the point of this

 sew along is not only to play with

 scraps and colors from our stash…

and also to play with my Scrappy Happy block settings.

YaY!

And just by simply turning the 

rectangle sections upside down …

a star is born!!!

It's amazing how the look of a block can change

by just a slight turning of the pieces:)

So this is my Summer Skies block

in a 24" finished size…

Just  8 more for the Summer Skies quilt:)

Easy Peasy!

I'll be showing you the rest of my

 blocks over the next few weeks-

and of course posting them onto our 

Scrappy Happy Summer Flickr group:)

But wait!!!

What about the 

Easy Corner Triangle trimmings?

Of course I have 

saved those for our next

Scrappy Happy project…

and here is how I did it.

Before I sewed my ECT's…

I did a little marking:)

I used my 1/2" wide ruler and marked a line 1/2" away 

from the center line that goes point to point like this.

I marked my lines in the direction that

 they needed to be sewn to form the block:)

I sewed directly on both of my marked lines...

and cut them apart which left each

 with an exact 1/4" seam allowance.

Then I pressed the ECT out as usual.

For the part you cut off…

 you will need a 3 1/2" square ruler.

Either one of these will work…

it just needs a diagonal line going across the center.

Place the diagonal line of 

the ruler onto your

 STITCHING LINE...

And trim off all excess fabric like this.

Using a mat that turns 

makes this little job fast and easy.

My favorite is this cute pink round one by 

Busy Fingers. (Sue Daley)

After trimming…press these seams open.

You will end up with a 

3 1/2" half square triangle

from each one of the ECT trimmings!!!

YaY again!

I LOVE not wasting fabric:)

This is all the waste that there is…

impressive to say the least!

So now that you have an ECT on

 one end of the rectangles...

Go ahead and do the same thing when you add the ECT

onto the other end.

And you will have 8 more

 3 1/2" half square triangles:)

Continue doing the same thing with 

EVERY ECT TRIMMING ...

And press the seams open on all of them.

Because you will get 24 from each block ...

By the time you have your 

9 Summer Skies block finished ...

you will have 

216 - 3 1/2" half square triangles

 for our next Scrappy Happy summer project:)

I can't wait to show you

 what we will be doing with them:)

Are you having fun yet?

Do you like my Summer Skies block?

I love seeing your photos on

 our Flickr page…

keep them coming!

xx

Lori

Scrappy Happy Summer Sew Along - My Design Boards Tutorial! ...

Over the weekend I made a few more of my

 design boards for our 

Scrappy Happy Summer Sew Along:)

YaY!!!

Because we are making my 

Scrappy Happy block in 4 sizes…

I thought I needed a few more boards:)

I've been going to make a really large one 

ever since I saw that Hobby Lobby now has

the foam core boards in extra

30" x 40" gia -bungo size!!!

I bought 2 of them and made one large one…

 and then cut the other one into;

2 - 20" squares

4 - 10" squares

Even though I already have 6 of the 10" size…

I was needing more because not only

 do I use them for small blocks…

I use them when cutting to keep my

 pieces separated and organized.

I also stack them on top of each other after they have

 the cut pieces on them to save counter space:)

So now I have a total of ten small ones…

I know they will come in sew handy 

and that I will use them every day!

Just to show you how large the biggest one really is…

I took a pic of my new boards next to my machine.

(i made the green rectangle one a few months ago:)

The large one fits there perfectly on my counter.

It's really going to come in handy when designing 

little quilts or the 24" Scrappy Happy blocks:)

The two 20" square ones are perfect when 

making the 12" or 18" Scrappy Happy blocks:)

And also…

because they are the same size,

I can sandwich my finished blocks between them 

for protection when traveling to Sew Day or retreat!

Of course I will use all of my design boards…

old and new together.

One can never have too many:)

You can see that the new boards are

 clean white and thread free…

that won't last for long! (hehe)

Each board size serves its own purpose …

depending on the project I am making.

I wanted to post about these for this weeks

Scrappy Happy Summer post…

to encourage you to make some 

for yourself if you haven't yet…

and to make more if you already have!

These design boards are so easy to make…

and useful in "sew" many ways.

I promise that once you have used them…

you will wonder what you ever did without them!

They are also a good way to use up some leftover 

batting and 2 1/2" strips in your stash:)

Click Here

 for my tutorial on how to make them

 and how and why I use them.

I also did a YouTube tutorial 

on them a long time ago.

Click Here

 if you want to see that as well.

If you haven't joined the 

Scrappy Happy Summer Sew Along yet…

Click Here

to add photos of your design boards…

we all want to see!

I'll be back next Monday with a new project

for the sew along!

Have a quilty kind of summer…

xx

Lori

P.S.For those of you who have already 

made my design boards…

I'd love to hear what you think of them!

It just might help those who haven't yet 

made one realize how helpful they are!:)

Scrappy Summer Sew Along - Sweet and Simple Runner Tutorial!!! ...

Good morning cute people!

I'm excited to show you my latest 

Scrappy Happy project 

that I made last week.

Last Monday we kicked off the 

Scrappy Happy Summer 

sew along…

the button and the flickr group

 are now ready to go!

Add the above button 

to your blog and 

click here

to join up for a 

summer of scrappy happiness:)

So remember when I showed you

 these trimmings off of the 

Easy Corner Triangles 

from last weeks

 Scrappy Happy Summer project?

I did NOT want to throw them out!

After all…

this sew along is about

 using up our scraps right?

 I cut them into cute little 1 1/2" squares:)

I have been wanting to make a runner to protect the 

top of my piano ever since I painted it 3 years ago.

I decided that these little squares would be the perfect answer!

So I measured my piano top and started 

playing with my squares to see what

 fast and easy runner that I could come up with.

I played with my squares in several different settings

 (on my design board)

rearranging them until they made me happy:)

I decided on this easy setting for my runner.

I liked this sweet and simple block!

Because the 1 1/2" squares were in matching sets of 4…

I decided to use the solid yellow squares for the centers

 and add 4 of the matching squares around it…

along with 4 background squares in the corners.

I also used 2 different backgrounds to add a little more interest

as I alternated the blocks for the runner.

Because my piano is 58" long…

I needed to cut a few more squares

 from my scrappy stash baskets.

I could have used my 1 1/2" basket of strips and squares

but I decided to use my 3 1/2" basket…

it was fast and easy to cut several more matching sets of 4 for each block.

You can cut a set from one 3 1/2"square!

Of course you could easily make 

a smaller runner or a doll quilt from your leftover squares…

this sew along is about deciding 

what YOU want to make…

you are the boss of your own scraps!

You could measure your piano or maybe

your sofa table or fireplace mantle and

 customize the size of your runner to fit.

It's easy using just simple math and graph paper…

all you need to know is that

 each little block measures 3" when finished:)

But if you want to make one like mine…

here is what I did. 

It measures 13 1/2" x 55 1/2" and 

consists of 51 sweet little blocks

in a setting of 3 across and 17 down.

For EACH of the 51 blocks I cut -

1 - 1 1/2" yellow square 

4 - 1 1/2" matching squares

4 - 1 1/2" background squares

I also cut border strips;

2 - 2 1/2" x 13 1/2"

and 2 - 2 1/2" x 51 1/2"

I used 1/4 yard of white background

 and 

just under 1/2 yard of the polka dot background.

I made 25 of the blocks with the 

pink polka dot background and

 26 of them with the white background.

I pressed all of my seams open 

so that they would lay nice and flat…

I do this whenever I am working with small pieces.

Pressing the seams open also makes it easy peasy

to line up the seams when sewing together.

I like to use these Fork Pins by Clover 

when I am sewing 2 open seams together.

Because a pin goes on each side of the seam…

there is absolutely no shifting:)

51 sweet and simple blocks all sewn:)

They each measure 3 1/2" at this point.

I sewed them into rows…

alternating the two different backgrounds.

And pressed ALL seams open.

You can't believe how flat it is for such tiny pieces!

Now it's time to add the border strips.

This is how I cut border strips when they

 need to be wider than the width of my fabric;

 I cut 4 - 2 1/2" x Width of Fabric strips 

from my pink polka dot fabric.

Cut off the selvedge...

and sew them together on the diagonal like this.

You can mark them…

or just use your Angler 2 lines that

 is taped to your sewing machine like I usually do:)

After sewing, trim off the excess leaving about 1/4" seam allowance...

and press open for less bulk.

Cut and sew on your side strips first…

(2 1/2" x 51 1/2")

And then the end strips last.

(2 1/2" x 13 1/2")

Press all seams towards the border strips…

and quilt your Sweet and Simple runner!

Next…choose your binding fabric.

I chose a yellow print in the same shade of my 

solid yellow for the center squares of each block…

so that the binding would coordinate nicely:)

I cut 4 - 2 1/2" x WOF strips

and prepared 150" of binding.

CLICK HERE

if you want to see how I further 

prepare my binding and bind my quilts.

Bind your runner and take

 a few photos to add to our flickr group...

We all want to see what you are making!

I'll chat at you next Monday 

when it's time for the next 

Scrappy Happy Summer episode:)

But if you want to see what

 I'm up to in the meantime …

CLICK HERE 

and join me on Instagram:)

Have a quilty kind of summer…

xx

Lori