Have you ever started with a plan all worked out in your mind, only to have it change before you finished? That's the story of this week's blog, and I'm so glad it worked out the way it did! I started to make a bunch of Dresden Plate blocks to work into a table runner (that part was in the original plan). This is the perfect way to use up odds and ends leftover from other projects. I cut a heap of 2½” x 5” rectangles in various shades of red and blue. I used an 18-degree wedg

I have a problem with crumbs… and not the kind found in your kitchen 🙂 These little packs of 2½” squares (called crumbs) are sent to me whenever new fabric lines come out. I love looking at them, but then I feel guilty if I don’t find a way to use them! So, this week I grabbed a couple of complementary packs, one solid and one floral print. I paired them up in four patches with two solids and two printed squares in each. In the end, I got (20) four patches out of the two cru

Partial seams are one of the easiest ways to get visual bang for your buck without a whole lot of fuss. It’s that one extra step that makes the seams look “woven” because it isn’t immediately obvious where the piecing begins and ends. I'll show you how to use partial seams to make these three blocks, as well as a couple of quilts that use this block style to get this effect. Block 1 has a 2.5” square in the middle, then four 4.5” x 2.5” strips that border it. The top strip ge

…With your scrap pile, of course :) This week, I was playing with a new block idea that could use up more scraps! You’ll need at least three 2½” strips… or, several scrap length 2½” strips if you don’t have selvage to selvage length. I chose two red strips and one red and white gingham strip. Sew these strips together and press the long seams open. This strip set should measure 6½” across once sewn. Cut the strip set into rectangles 6½” x 4⅝”. You’ll need (9) pieced rectang

How about a fun scrap-friendly project that takes almost no time to stitch up?! I made this bench pillow out of bits and pieces I had left over from another project. It took me only 15 minutes to sew everything together, and I thought I’d show you how I did that. Have you seen the fusible interfacing that has grid lines marked on it? I have it in several sizes of grids, and depending on what size scraps you have, I think you can get grids marked as small as 1”! For this proje