Following the Flock

Back on January 28, 2010, I posted a blog entry written by American Quilter magazine pattern editor Marje Rhine. Marje came up with a clever way to creatively use small scraps. This is Marje's finished top, and here are her comments on the project:

"I finally got back to the scrap quilt I call Flock of Blocks. After sewing all the Flying Geese, I placed the pieces on a design wall and decided I like the Flying Dutchman blocks and surrounded-square blocks best. The whole quilt is quite busy but these two worked well together - using only two different scrap blocks created a calmer effect. I used a lot of the leftover geese units to make the outer border."

Great quilt, Marje! Has anyone else out there tried Marje's technique? Please send a photo of your quilt or top to chrisbrown@aqsquilt.com.



 

A flock of blocks

(Submitted by Marje Rhine, American Quilter pattern editor)
I admit it – I am (or was) a scrap saver. Almost no scrap was too small to go into one of my many scrap boxes or bags.

But there were way too many, so as one of my New Year’s resolutions, I decided to pare down my scrap collection. Many went into the garbage – I  don't have the patience to sew all those 2” squares together. I set aside full width-of-fabric strips for a future strip-pieced quilt. Many scraps were cut up into specific sizes for a series of scrappy quilts for charity (maybe I will write more on this later).
The rest were too large to throw out, so I cut them into squares, triangles, and rectangles. I then sewed them together into roughly 8 1/2” x 8 1/2” squares. Some of the squares didn’t lay flat until I steamed them. I didn’t worry about losing points on triangles, or having seams match up. I just had fun sewing them together any which way. From each 8 1/2” square I accurately cut a 7 3/4” x 7 3/4” square.

 I did NOT center the cut square on any part of the pieced square, as I wanted scrappy and funky shapes. Each square was then cut into quarter-square triangles by cutting on both diagonals.

From a black fabric I cut 4 1/8” x 4 1/8” square then cut it on one diagonal to make 2 half square triangles. I stitched these to the sides of a scrappy triangle to make a Flying Geese unit.

There are many ways to sew these together. I already have a row of geese and a Flying Dutchman block. So when I want to do mindless sewing, I will sit down with my scraps and soon will have a flock of blocks to sew into a scrappy and fun quilt.