Super Scrappy October

Brown is the color for October in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've made a couple of blocks...

(red background but the star is a tan print)

But more of my time has been spent working on the Parts Department quilt top. If you recall, I had it up to 72" square at this point:

My goal was 84" square so I needed twelve inches overall to get there. My first idea was to use 6" Bow Tie blocks all the way around to create a final border.

the bottom row

I was hoping for a ribbon-like effect all the way around.

the top of the flimsy

The Bow Ties would have aligned beautifully at the corners, creating a continuous string. However, it only took two border strips to make me realize how distracting those Bow Ties were going to be. I had to let this sit on the back burner for a few days before a better idea presented itself.

First of all, I knew I wanted another strip of a single fabric to frame the 9" Shoo-fly borders. Had to find the right color/print for that, and something I had enough of to go all the way around the flimsy. That left four inches to fill somehow. I don't have a lot of parts that small in my Parts Department and I really didn't want to take the time to make the number I'd need to cover that distance!

Then I thought about the central section of the top, specifically the "Lego" blocks I used around the Ohio Star. Could I do something like that to make the four inches of borders I needed? Certainly! Scrap strips, 2.5" wide, sewn end-to-end until I had 145" in length, then folded over one time and sewn down the length created a four inch wide (4.5" raw), 72" long unit. Four of those were all I needed.

To turn the corners I made four chevron type Log Cabin blocks. I began with squares of the same red print that I'd used for the framing strips. That links up the four single red strips into one contiguous frame.

I like this much better. I've nearly used up my scrap 2.5" strips, made a healthy dent in the 2" scrap strips, and reduced the inventory in my Parts Department. :D When I put this on my double bed I was delighted to see how well suited it is. The blue frame comes right out to the edges of the mattress, thus allowing the Shoo-fly blocks and outer border to be seen as the drop on each side and along the foot of the bed. It could be longer of course, but this is as big as this one is going to be. Who makes up a bed formally anymore anyway? I don't! (Never could master a pillow tuck to my satisfaction. I'd spend all day fussing with it!)

I'll be linking up with the other rainbow scrappers on Saturday. Meanwhile, my F2F swap blocks have been arriving over the last couple of weeks. So much squishy goodness in the mailbox! They're going to make another rainbow quilt, this time one for my own bed. :- )