hello, little Crumbs!

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So the other day I decided I needed to make a scrap quilt asap. I wanted something kind of mindless to cut and sew that would use up my little crumb scraps. I’m thinking - full scrappy!

Do you keep crumbs? Crumbs are square-ish scraps with sides about 1.5” - 3”. I cleared out my entire crumb collection two years ago, but here I am with a healthy population again. Shrug. That’s how it goes when you sew a lot!


Guess what I chose to make? Miniature Cross Roads blocks! I referenced a tutorial for the Scrappy Cross Roads Block on Lori Holt’s blog, A Bee in My Bonnet. In order to use my smallest scraps, I’m downsizing her block quite a bit. My scrappy squares are cut 2” and my background squares are cut 3.5”.

Crumb scraps for patchwork.Stitched in Color.jpg

I don’t precut my scraps into any particular shape, in order to keep all my options open. When I settled on this block, my first step was to cut all my crumbs to 2” squares. Such a satisfying first step! I actually love cutting scraps. It feels so tidy.

Next I sewed background squares with “easy corner triangles” a la Lori’s tutorial. I’m using low volume scraps for my backgrounds, which I’m hoping doesn’t obscure the pattern too much. It’s surprising how many scraps a quilt like this will eat! Now I’m also cutting triangle scraps into 2” squares because I’ve used up all my crumbs. Yippee!

Scrappy Cross Roads Blocks. Stitched in Color.jpg

Here’s to happy, scrappy patchwork!

 

p.s. I am moving forward with plans to produce a Drummer Boy Dresden pattern. I’ll be testing a few block sizes soon. Thanks so much for your feedback!