Palate cleanser

I struggled with what to make for my next quilt.  It was an odd time for me as we prepared for a 2 week trip to Hawaii, with hip surgery following that trip.  Sometimes, knowing what and where to start are a little hard; there's so many, many ideas floating around in my head.  That's when a palate cleanser is needed.  You know what I'm talking about.... something that you can make in your sleep, something to do with your scraps, playing around with techniques with no goal in mind, or making some quilts for charity and thinking about someone else in need.

I pulled out my scrap bin of greens and blues and started sewing them together.  It's a bit of messy process as you can see in the picture.  I didn't use a foundation; just sewed them together and flipped and pressed as I went along.

I sewed enough pieces together to make 9" blocks that resembled crazy quilt blocks or modified log cabin blocks.

Then I cut 9" blocks out of dark navy blue fabrics and sewed these together to make half-square triangles.  I pressed the seams towards the blue fabric.  The blocks were trimmed to 8-1/2".  I was lucky that I got that size since I started with 9".  I think the trick was to sew a scant 1/4" seam on either side of the center line, so that I got the maximum size in the end. I put up  them on my design wall and played around with a setting.

This top would only be 40" x 56", which is a little small for a lap or twin sized quilt.  Even my husband said that it looked a little small when he poked his head into my studio.  

I thought about doing something else besides making more scrap blocks, but anything that I thought of just didn't float my boat.  So,  I went back to the sewing machine and make more scrap blocks.  I only had to make 5 more in order to get 10 more finished half-square triangle blocks.  Anyway, here are the blocks on the wall all ready to sew together.    It should end up at 48" x 64".  But I headed to Hawaii for a couple of weeks, so you'll have to stay tuned to see the finished top, or maybe even the finished quilt. 

I hope you like it so far!