Scrap Elimination Diet Underwater Blues

I am buried under scraps. I paid for all that fabric and it is hard to throw those bits and bobs away. I make bonus half square triangles when do stitch and flip. I have several gallon bags full of 1 1/2 inch squares. I have bins of sorted scraps by size and by color. I have laundry basket after laundry basket of of unsorted scraps. I am trying to get better at cutting up my scraps at the end of a project. I cut my scraps up in to the largest usable sizes: Squares in 10 in, 5 inch, 4 1/2, 3 1/2 in, 2 1/2 in, 2 in and 1 1/2 in and Strings in 3 1/2 in, 2 1/2 in, 2 1/4 in, 2 in, 1 1/2 in, 1 1/4 in and 1 in. Some times if I have a particular project in mind I will do 6 1/5 and 8 1/2 in squares and 4.5 in strings. My string sizes are a bit crazier than my squares because I like a 2 1/4 in binding and all my extra binding scraps end up in there and I will pull from there for a scrappy binding. and if you cut a jelly roll in half you get a 1 1/4 in strip. These 1 1/4 in strips and 1 in strips make some great pops of color when you a piecing. Your mileage may vary when it comes to sizes to cut the scraps down to. I do find that if I iron my scraps and cut them down to size they are easier to store and more usable. I do keep a couple bins of chaotic random sized scraps for making applique pieces or collage quilts with. This dichotomy in my brain is where I often fall down on scraps. Part of my brain says cut them all down make them usable, while the rest of my brain is screaming but if you cut it down then you are losing possibilities for some great applique. The latter often wins which is why we need the scrap elimination diet. You came here today to get some great patterns on what to do to use up some of these scraps.

Underwater Blues started out with trying to capture the way light moves through water. Version 1 started out as a way to save a hideous jelly roll race quilt. In an attempt to salvage a quilt top that I didn't like and wasn't working, I started to cut up the jelly roll race and turn it into half square triangles with a blue. background, I started to see the light moving through the water. And because it is me and I have all the blue scraps, it felt very watery. I laid it out in an off set diamond pattern that had the light all filtering from the left. I fused some wonderunder to to stash yardage and made a 30 in long applique fish for the quilt. The blocks in this quilt are 6 in finished blocks. V1 is a 56x56 in quilt.

Version 2 was made more intentionally. I wanted to make something similar to version 1 but I wanted to play with construction. I started with a large pile of blue and green and purple strings with occasional pops of other colors and a stack of 10 in x 10 in foundation papers that I had purchased previously and they had been in my sewing room for a while. I wanted to maintain a similar pattern as before but I wanted to make bigger blocks to make the quilt use up more scraps. I made 25- 10.5 in string blocks. My back ground is much scrappier. In V1 I used I think 5 fabrics that I cut out of yardage. They ha their differences but they were all blue. In V2 I pulled partial fat quarter out of the bin and let them range anywhere from green to purple. It was a design choice to use up alot of partial pieces instead of cutting pieces out of yardage. The fish that is appliqued to the quilt top is one that has been floating around my sewing for like 8ish years. Originally he was going to go on quilt top that ended up not working out. I salvaged most of the fabric from it and turn it into other pieces. But he hadn't found a home yet and well why not. He is constructed using a machine finished turned edge applique technique I learned from Beth Ferrier. The blocks in this quilt finish at 9.5 inches and the Finished quilt measures 67x67 inches.

Version 3 is another variation on the theme. I was trying to break away from the foundation papers. I started out pulling 67- 2.5 in strips. cause well that was the number I could easily find. If I had more I would have pulled more if I had less I would have gone with less. I turned these strips into a large jelly roll race quilt. I needed 56 half square triangles and and 12 square blocks. the jelly roll race was big enough to cut all of these pieces from. But at the same time I was also playing with the layout. I was looking through Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieces Quilt Blocks and I was looking at carpenters star blocks and variants of them. I found this variant and went with it. The scrap blocks are all primarily blue. This quilt is enormous. The individual blocks finish at 9.5 inches and the overall lay out is 95x95. I added a three inch border all the way around to stabilize all of my edges while I am quilting. This means the the quilt is 101x101. I would consider that generous Queen size or a small King size top.

Version 4 and Version 5, which we will be demonstrating on Saturday June 24, 2023 at 10:00 Mountain as part of the class are back to the foundation pieced strings. I went back to this method because I liked the ease it was to use different widths of strips. V4 and V5 are variations on a double carpenter star quilt. Sally J's quilt is going to be a Christmas poinsettia quilt. Mine (Sally'W) will be a a purple and pink Rose. We went to 8 1/2 inch blocks because it is easy to take scratch paper and cut it into 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch squares. The blocks in the quilt will finish at 7 1/2, because of some fun half square triangle math. The quilt will finish at 90x90. You can make it larger if you want by adding borders. There are still enough open edges on this that I will probably add a 3 inch stabilization border to my quilt because I will be long arming it and it just makes life easier.

So lets get down to business, You came here for a tutorial to use up your scraps:

I am going to use the foundation paper piecing method for this tutorial, you are welcome to cut up a jelly roll race if you so desire.

Step 1: Gather some strips. more than you thing you need. if they are sorted this is easy, if they aren't well that is ok too, it allows you to take stock of what you have. You can pick your scraps one of several ways. You grab scraps that are everything and the kitchen sink. You can pick all scraps that fit with in one color, such as I am only going to pick out the yellow orange. or I am only going to pick out the red strips. The third option is to pick a range of colors. I picked blue, but added in greens and purples. I used a pop color of white and pinks when I wanted a flash. I find this last option a nice middle ground between the scrap vomit that can happen when you use everything, but at the same time allows the blocks to sparkle that you miss out on if all of your colors are too similar.

Step 2: Decide on a lay out. and see how many blocks of what size you need

Version 1	81 Blocks	7 in template	Trim to 7 before diagonal cut	6.5 in unfinished block	6 in finished block
	Squares to make	Makes HST
Strip Squares	41	82
Background	41	82
Version 2	49 Blocks	10 in Tempalte	Trim to 10.5 before diagonal cut	9.5 in unfinished block	9.5 in finished block
	suqares to make	Makes HST
Strip Squares	25	50
Background	25	50
Version 3	100 blocks	10 in template	Trim to 10.5 before diagonal cut	9.5 in unfinished block	9.5 in finished block
	10 1/2 x 10 1/2	Makes # hst	10 in x10 in
Strip Squares	28	56	12
Background	18	36	36

Version 4 & 5	144 Blocks	8 1/2 x 8 1/2 template	Trim to 8 1/2 inches	8 inch unfinished block	7 1/2 finished block
	8 1/2 x 8 1/2 blocks	Makes #HST	8 x 8 in blocks
Gold	8	16
Light Red	16	32	4
Red	16	32	8
Dark Red	16	32	4
Dark Green	8	16	8
Green	4	8
White	24	48	24

Step 3: Cut your papers to 8 1/2 in or 7 1/2 in squares or get some foundation paper piecing paper that is 10 in. I had several packs of 10 x 10in paper from Missouri Star Quilt Company, but I also cut a ton of scratch pages up to make 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in squares.

Step 4: take strip and lay it diagonally across your square right side up. I just use 1 pin and pin it in place. lay a second strip right sides together with the first strip, align the long edge. Before you sew shorted your stitch length to 1.8 to 2. It will make it easier to remove the papers later. Sew a 1/4 in seam. Repeat for the other side of the center strip. Make sure your fabric sticks out past the edges of the paper.

Step 5: Press the strips away from the center block.

Step 6: Repeat adding the strips to the sides. Vary the sizes and colors that you use. keep going until all of the paper is covered in fabric. Your blocks will look like this.

Step 7: Square up your blocks to the size indicated for the layout you picked. and remove the papers.

Step 8: Cut the blocks diagonally in half. as directed by the table

Step 9: Pick out and cut your background fabric based on the number needed in the table for you variation. You will cut these to the same size as you squared your blocks to. So if I squared my blocks to 10 1/2 inches I will cut my background fabric to 10 1/2 squares. and if it is a square background piece it will be half a inch smaller than the block we cut diagonally in half.

Step 10: Sew a background half square triangle to a scrappy half square triangle. Press the seams to the background fabric. Square up your finished blocks.

Step 11: Lay out your blocks according to the variant you picked. arrange the blocks do they are pleasing. I scatters my background colors so nothing touched. but you could get a cool effect to if you tried to group up all of of your background colors. I also discovered when I went to lay out V2 I had only make 48 blocks instead of 49. I remedied this by making the bottom corner block two background pieces sewn together.

Step 12: Sew your blocks together into rows and then sew your rows together and you have a finished center. You can add a border if you like. I like a skinny border to stabilize all my raw edges when I am long arming. but at the very minimum sew a victory lap 1/8 in from the edge of your quilts. Sew all the way around your quilt. This keeps the seams from opening up while quilting and the bias edges from stretching out.

Step 13: Quilt as desired. Version 1 on I used a pattern called extensions on it. I don't remember where I got it . I custom quilted the coelacanth on the quilt. Version 2 and 3 I used Karlee Porter's Modular Graffiti Quilting E2E. I haven't decided how I will quilt the Dunkleosteus on this quilt yet. I will probably use My favorite Butterfly Damask from Wasatch Quilting on my Version 5. The backings for all of my quilts are all out of stash. I used a fleece as batting in V1 and a lovely minky back. V2 got a top sheet as the backing. My huskies destroy the fitted sheets before the top sheet ever seems to get any wear. The sheet is a solid teal and I am quilting it with vibrant royal blue thread and it is super fun. V3 is getting a 108 batik wide back that I had sitting around. V4 will get an all over floral that I have like 9 yards of sitting around.