That Was the Week That Wasn't

 Life has a way of getting in the way of your plans, doesn't it? I wanted to write this blog post on Monday and here it is Friday. I know this sort of thing happens to everyone at some time or other, I just wish it didn't occur so frequently in my own life! 

I completed the scrappy Ships quilt top over two weeks ago. (see post here) I was given yards of a lighthouse print for the back. The lighthouses are directional so, being who I am, I looked for a way to keep them right side up on the back of the quilt. There were a couple of prints in my stash I'd had a hard time implementing in previous projects. This provided a great opportunity to put them to good use.

This project has since been quilted and is simply waiting for the binding to be applied. I have not been idle since it left my hands however. I pulled out the collection of 12" (finished) Lego blocks I've been making with 2" scrap strips, just to see how many there were and whether I could do anything with them.

 I started out thinking about using them as a central medallion. Nope, not this time. I put those away and got out my 6" (finished) Sticks blocks. I use six 1.5" scrap strips to make the 6" blocks. Both the Lego and the Sticks blocks are made from the scrap strips I sew between seams like leaders and enders. Turned out I had enough to make fifteen 12" (finished) blocks out of them. Putting them in three columns gave me 60" in length and 36" in width to begin a new quilt.

If you know me at all you know I then turned to my scrappy Shoo-fly blocks to audition between the columns. A couple days later I'd made my selections and found some leftover 2.5" strips to use for sashes between the blocks.

 Unfortunately, my math was a bit off.

I lacked two inches in each of those alternate columns. Time to go through the 1.5" scrap strips...

One above the center Shoo-fly block in each column, and one below, and problem solved. 😁

I was delighted to discover that I had enough of the leftover 2.5" strips to piece together for side borders. I called it quits at that point, figuring a dark binding will do the job of giving the quilt a finished look.

 This will be about 52" x 60" when it's done. It looks awfully busy to me now but I enjoyed it while I was working on it. On to the next one!