Booking Along

Now that my main sewing machine is in the sewing machine hospital and I've finally set up my smaller Hobby Pfaff for stitching, I've returned to work on my next quilt book.

I've got a working title: New Cloth from Old. In it, I'm going to explore different ways to use scrap fabric, considering it an important design element rather than something to use up.

Over the years, primarily because of my work on Teach Yourself Visually Quilting, I've accumulated a lot of odd blocks or partially-done pieces. Like the three-strip piece in the center of this block.

These three pieces were part of a photo shoot in that book for a small quilt featured in the strip-piecing segment. The pattern in that book is called Rail Fence and it visually zigzags over the surface of the quilt in a regular way.

Now this leftover bit of fabric from a long-ago photo shoot is now the center of another block. This one is called Courthouse Steps, the most important variation of the Log Cabin pattern and one of my favorite blocks. It is so versatile.

There are 24 of these blocks to match the 24 blocks I made previously that used scrap as a frame around a solid green center. I put a picture of one of those at the bottom of this post.

Now here's the design challenge. I have 48 blocks all together. I need to keep three for the step-by-step panels that will become part of my workshop teaching kit. That leaves 45. I want to demonstrate different ways that the same blocks can be used in a quilt. I plan to use nine blocks (the Nine Patch being the most ubiquitous pattern in all of quilting) in each quilt.

Five ways to use scrap blocks in a quilt.

And away we go!