Scrappy Doodle Sunday

Its July so a new EQ Doodle has magically appeared on the EQ Doodles page. This month we look at a simple on-point Autograph block. You can make these as ordered or not as you wish, keep the centre strip plain white for autographs, or just mix up the colours and have fun with it all.

Over on the Doodles page we have kept our ideas to greyscale but here on the scrappy post we can go a little mad with colour. In these examples we have kept the background triangles the same colour,  but used different prints; you could try mixing these colours up too and make other designs where the blocks meet.

Download a colouring sheet here to play with. The easiest way to make this block is not to worry about the finished size but to worry about the size of the strips – especially if they are to have autographs scrawled on them. Cut strips to a suitable width, join three together and then cut into squares. Add setting triangles to the four corners to turn the strip square on point – you can download an information sheet about how to do that here.

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Scrappy Sundays – EQ Doodle

The May doodle is called Jungle Flower – a variation on Drunkards Path. You can download the templates to make a 12 inch block here. Over on the Doodles page we have just shown the block and possible settings in grey-scale, such as this one –

We have shown various possibilities for shading but not for colour and the quilts use the same – or at most two – shadings. So what could the blocks look like with a bit of colour added?

And if we used lots of colour, making each block different, and then put them together in a wonderful colourful scrappy quilt?

Download a quilt to colour here – and remember that you can print it out as many times as you like, cut it up, turn the blocks around and generally play with the possibilities yourself.

 

Scrappy Sundays – more strips

Chris has been browsing her bookcase in the last few weeks and unearthed one of her earliest patchwork books – The Perfect Patchwork Primer by Beth Gutcheon.

All black and white, no colour at all, and lots of useful information on making and using templates and sewing patches together by hand – no rotary cutter or indeed machine stitching mentioned. On the other hand it does contain a lot of blocks and one that caught my eye was called Becky’s 9-Patch as it consisted of different width strips plus a couple of squares.

You can download the rotary cutting instructions to make a 9 inch version here (courtesy of Electric Quilt). I then had a play with the colours. If you make all your blocks the same colours (and remember they needn’t be the same fabrics as they are in my diagrams, they could just be the same shade of whatever colour) then you get some very interesting patterns appearing depending on where the colour emphasis is and which way you turn the blocks.

You do get more of a mish-mash if you make everything a different colour.

But you could try to make just the long edges all the same (ish) to get some pattern and symmetry back into your quilt.

Download a quilt to colour in and/or cut up to play with – you can print it out as many times as you like.

Scrappy Sunday – EQ Doodles

And suddenly its March! If the techie gods have been kind then our March EQ Doodles are up on the Doodles page; if not, then hopefully they will find their way there soon.

Our block for March is Doris’ Delight, a variation of 54-40 or Fight.

Over on the Doodles page we’ve changed the shading around a few times and given you a few ideas for quilt settings. But what about a scrappy version?

We would suggest keeping the star points the same colour – not necessarily the same fabric, just the same colour and then mix and match the other pieces – bright plus light for instance – and move them around. You might end up with blocks a bit like these two

But what about a quilt?

Alternating the light/bright placements and keeping the points the same colour does seem to work. Download a quilt to colour here and the templates, rotary cutting measurements and even a foundation piecing pattern (for the Peaky and Spike units) can be downloaded here if you fancy making some 12 inch blocks for real.

 

Scrappy Sundays What If?

Barbara’s post last week got me thinking. What if I took some of those HST blocks and cut them up, then rearranged the bits? Fiddly, yes . . . but I had to try it. Think of Disappearing 4-patch or 9-patch but with variations! There were several orphan blocks and HSTs lurking in the scrap bags to play with so I hunted them out and got cutting.

I started with the Pinwheel block as I had two of those. I could have cut them somewhat randomly but because I thought I might mix up the bits from the two blocks I was a bit more considered in my cutting. The blocks were roughly 4 inches square so I measured and cut 2 inches from the centre seams.

I made all these variations with just the orange block and leaving the centre mini Pinwheel where it was. I didn’t get around to moving that centre to a corner or to one side and playing around again.

Then I added in the bits from the purple Pinwheel to make this block. Again there were so many other ways to play with all these bits, I shall have to set aside a day (or two).

Next I found a Broken Dishes block and some more triangles to make a second. Again I measured 2 inches from the centre seams to cut them up.

Then mixed the bits around a little.

Plus the other Broken Dishes block.

I could mix up the two different blocks (Pinwheels and Broken Dishes) couldn’t I?They were the same size (more or less) to start with.

What other blocks could I cut up and mix about? And I have only cut horizontal and vertical lines.

The Broken Dishes block could be divided in half along a diagonal and then the two halves of different blocks put together – especially if you cut the diagonal one way on one block and the other way on the next.

Some other blocks might lend themselves more to diagonal lines – like the 9-patch blocks I was playing with a few posts ago to make my bag.  I’m off to hunt in the orphan blocks bag – it could be the beginning of a whole new scrappy quilt, one that doesn’t look like a lot of orphan blocks in random fabrics squidged into an almost coherent design.  Or am I merely going to create yet more little bits for the scrap bag?!

Yet more happy scrappy ideas next week!