After separating and rough-cutting all my scrap fabrics, it was time to start piecing Half-Square Triangles.
As you know, I have experimented with different ways to make 2½-inch half-square triangles from 2½-inch strips. This time, I pulled out Bonnie Hunter’s Essential Triangle Tool.
The cutting process is straightforward, but there are a few important steps.
First, place the two fabrics right sides together…
To help them stay in place, I placed the background over the accent strip, and then ironed them in place.
Next step….. Square up one end of the strips…
Then, position the ruler so the edge lines up with the squared edge and the little blue triangle hangs off the strip…
and cut the diagonal edge for the first HST…
Then turn the ruler the other way (see the blue triangle hanging off the edge again)…
and make the next perpendicular cut.
Continue turning the ruler back and forth as you work your way along the strips.
Once everything was cut, I clipped the triangles together in groups of four…
That kept the pairs organized and made them easy to carry over to the sewing machine.
The cutting was finished—but I still had something important to learn about sewing these triangles together.
After cutting all the strips for my two new scrappy quilts, I was left with a collection of little odds and ends….
You know the ones—those short pieces that aren’t long enough for the current project but are still far too useful to throw away.
Normally, I would toss them into the scrap basket and promise myself that I would deal with them later.
We all know what later means.
This time, I decided to deal with them before they became another basket full of scraps waiting for my attention.
I stacked 5 of these strips on top of one another, and evened up one edge….
Then I made two cuts… one at 5 inches and one at 2.5 inches…
I KNEW that the bottom cut of 2.5 inches would result in a perfect square while SOME of the top squares would be big enough….but not all of them.
At the end of the cutting session, I had a nice set of squares…..
These went into my 2.5-inch box, the “crumbies” found their way into the crumb drawers, and all I was left with was this small pile of offcuts…..
AND NO…these weren’t thrown away, but added to my bin of scraps headed for dog beds.
NOTHING IS WASTED!!
And just like that, the leftovers were sorted and ready to use.
No new pile.
No overflowing scrap basket.
No future afternoon spent cutting up fabric that I could have handled in just a few minutes today.
Honestly, this should be my standard method every time I finish cutting fabric.
Should be.
Isn’t always.
But perhaps if I do it often enough, it will eventually become a habit. In the meantime, I’m enjoying my neat little stacks of 2½-inch squares—and feeling unusually pleased with myself for staying ahead of the scraps for once!
……………………………………………………………
STOP SAVING YOUR SCRAPS FOR “SOMEDAY”
With Crumbs for the Geese, you’ll confidently turn even the smallest pieces into a vibrant, finished quilt—no second guessing, no overwhelm.
🎥 You’ll also get a 30-minute step-by-step video on crumb blocks and precise flying geese Just sew, build, and enjoy the process
In Thursday’s post, I admitted that I had added a second scrap quilt to my project list. Apparently, one new scrap quilt wasn’t enough!
The two quilts will have very different looks. The Hunter’s Star will use bright scraps against a dark background….
…while the Celtic Knot will feature deeper, richer colors with a tan background….
By the way, I have NO idea where this fabric came from but there are 4-yards, and I will NOT look an unknown “gift-horse” in the mouth!!
Before I started cutting, I needed to answer one important question:
How long did each scrap need to be?
Calculating the Hunter’s Star Scraps
The Hunter’s Star quilt will have 80 blocks, with eight star sections in each block.
That means I need:
80 blocks × 8 sections = 640 star sections
Using the Bonnie Hunter Essential Triangle Tool, I can cut four star sections from each fabric. Dividing 640 by four told me that I would need approximately 160 different fabrics.
Each strip needs to be about 7–8 inches long to give me enough room to cut the four sections.
So, my Hunter’s Star cutting requirement is:
Approximately 160 bright fabrics
One 2½-inch-wide strip from each fabric
Each strip approximately 7–8 inches long
Calculating the Celtic Knot Scraps
The Celtic Knot uses a different combination of pieces from each fabric. For each color, I need:
One 6½-inch piece
Two 2½-inch pieces
The exact total is 11½ inches. I rounded that up to 12 inches and then added another inch to allow for trimming, uneven scrap edges, and the occasional less-than-perfect cut.
That brought my final cutting length to:
13 inches from each fabric
The quilt will use approximately 100 different fabrics in the deeper, richer color palette.
Now I had two very specific measurements to keep in mind as I work through my scraps:
Bright scraps: 7–8 inches long for the Hunter’s Star
Deeper-colored scraps: 13 inches long for the Celtic Knot
Of course, this also means that I have officially turned “playing with scraps” into a math problem.
Fortunately, it is the fun kind of math!
At the end of my two cutting sessions, I had all of the strips cut and ready to go…..
The Hunter Star Brights…..
….and the Celtic Knot Deep colors…..
Note to self….that bright yellow may have to go!!
Do you calculate exactly what you need before sorting your scraps, or do you simply start cutting and hope for the best?
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“Let’s Get Scrappy is about how to decide, not about what to make.”
Let’s Get Scrappy is an on-demand online course that helps quilters overcome decision fatigue and finally make sense of their overflowing scrap bins. With four hours of step-by-step video instruction, you’ll learn simple systems for organizing, piecing, and pressing your scraps—so you can stop overthinking and start sewing beautiful, coordinated quilts with confidence and joy.
Apparently, the best response to planning ONE new scrap quilt is to start another one.
This second one began as an inspiration while watching a favorite YouTube channel….. The Quilted Forest
She was sharing a design called “Celtic Knot”, and I loved the way the design wove across the quilt.
I decided to make it, but didn’t have the pattern, so I started rewatching the video….and taking notes…..and pausing the video….and writing down measurements….and backing it up because I had missed something.
I was working hard to record all the instructions when she casually mentioned that it was a FREE Moda pattern.
Oh.
Apparently, I could have simply downloaded the pattern instead of trying to take dictation from YouTube!
Once I had the actual pattern in hand, I knew this would be a good companion project for my bright Hunter’s Star quilt. The Celtic Knot is made with squares and rectangles, so it will give me a nice break from all the half-square triangles in the Hunter’s Star.
So, yes, there are now officially two scrap quilts on my project list.
Was the second one necessary? Probably not.
Did that stop me? Of course not.
Next, I need to figure out exactly how much fabric each Celtic Knot scrap must provide so I can begin sorting and cutting. Thankfully, this time I have the written instructions!
Would you have started two at once??
…………………………………………………………….
“Let’s Get Scrappy is about how to decide, not about what to make.”
Let’s Get Scrappy is an on-demand online course that helps quilters overcome decision fatigue and finally make sense of their overflowing scrap bins. With four hours of step-by-step video instruction, you’ll learn simple systems for organizing, piecing, and pressing your scraps—so you can stop overthinking and start sewing beautiful, coordinated quilts with confidence and joy.
I am currently starting not one, but TWO scrap quilts. Yes, I added another one….more about that on Thursday!
Both quilts use 2½-inch strips, but I need specific lengths to cut the required pieces. As I sorted through my scraps, I kept pulling out my ruler to check whether each strip was long enough.
That got old quickly.
Instead, I placed three pieces of painter’s tape on my cutting mat to mark the lengths I needed…..
….. 8-inches for one project….
and 13-inches for the second……
Now I can lay down a strip and immediately see whether it is long enough—and about how much I need to cut off.
These are only rough cuts. I will still use my ruler when it is time to make the final, accurate cuts. For now, the goal is to work through the pile quickly without measuring every strip individually.
Here is part of my stack after only 30 minutes of sorting….
Sometimes precision matters. Other times, close enough really is close enough. The trick is knowing which kind of cut you are making.
It is a very simple solution, but when you are cutting pieces for TWO scrap quilts, every little shortcut helps!
What simple tricks do you use to make cutting scraps faster?
……………………………………………………………
STOP SAVING YOUR SCRAPS FOR “SOMEDAY”
With Crumbs for the Geese, you’ll confidently turn even the smallest pieces into a vibrant, finished quilt—no second guessing, no overwhelm.
🎥 You’ll also get a 30-minute step-by-step video on crumb blocks and precise flying geese Just sew, build, and enjoy the process
