Last Sunday, I showed you how I made my first Celtic Knots block.
I loved it!
So I picked out three more fabric sets and made three more blocks.
Then I put all four on the design wall.
That was when I noticed something important: the two blocks on the upper right…
…didn’t have enough contrast.
Some of the fabrics blended together, and the knot design wasn’t as clear as I wanted.
It’s a good reminder that I need to look carefully at the fabrics within each block, not just at how pretty they look together in a stack. The design wall helped me see something I hadn’t noticed while I was sewing.
Will I keep those two blocks or remake them? I’m going to wait until I’ve made the other 23 blocks and can see how everything works together.
If they still stand out for the wrong reasons, they’re history—or perhaps they’ll find a home on the back of the quilt!
Note to self: Make good fabric choices!
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Do you have a stack of scraps that you want to use in a fun design?
Check out this pattern for a quick and easy scrap quilt that will help empty your bins and bring a smile to your face!!
Full-color pattern includes step-by-step instructions for blocks and border.
In Saturday’s post, I showed you how I sewed a background square diagonally onto the end of a fabric strip for my Celtic Knots quilt. I promised to tell you what happened to the fabric in that corner!
I don’t like cutting off and throwing away a generous piece of fabric. So, after sewing the first diagonal line, I stitched a second line about 1/2-inch away from the first line…
Before cutting anything apart, I used the ironing method I learned years ago. First, I pressed the larger triangle into place and checked that it was straight…
Then I folded it back and pressed the smaller triangle, too…
Now that I KNOW both seams are properly pressed, I cut between the two lines of stitching…
I pressed them back in place and ended up with the strip I needed for the block and an extra half-square triangle (HST)!…
At some point, I’ll pull out my Bloc-Loc ruler and square up all these bonus HSTs. What will I use them for? Who knows! But they’re ready for a future project instead of going into the trash.
After lunch on Saturday, I switched from my Hunter’s Star quilt to Celtic Knots.
I started by cutting 2½-inch and 4½-inch squares from the background fabric.
As I started to select the scraps to use, I realized it would be easier to use the fabrics in groups of four for each block. I chose four strips that looked good together…
…stacked them, and cut a 6½-inch rectangle and two 2½-inch squares from each strip.
I dealt with the leftovers as I went, cutting whatever I could into 2½-inch or 2-inch squares. The smaller pieces went into my crumb drawers.
The first sewing step was to join a 2½-inch fabric square to a background square.
Next, I sewed a background square diagonally onto the end of each 6½-inch rectangle. Instead of marking every sewing line, I used the guide I had marked on my sewing machine…
I started at the top corner…
… checked that the bottom corner stayed on my marked line, and sewed across.
This step also gave me some bonus squares, but I’ll tell you more about those on Tuesday!
Next, I sewed the two small square units to a larger background square…
Then it was time to lay out the pieces…
At last, I could see the Celtic Knot design taking shape!
The final step was to add another “snowball” corner to each of the outer corners of the block.
One block finished!
I’ll leave it there for now. Come back on Thursday for more about the process—and on Tuesday, I’ll show you what happened to those bonus squares.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Subscribe to my mailing list and receive this free pattern for “Dancing Squares”…..
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?
…………………………………………………………….
“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.
