Hi friends!

I was playing around with a stack of 1 1/2″ and 2 1/2″ strips the other day and I thought…. this would be a fun share for my blog. How many of us have strips of fabric left over after cutting out a project? Raise your hand …. don’t be shy! Here’s a photo of some of my strip mess that I let accumulate while cutting out and making other quilts.

I do also have some more orderly storage …. when the strips make it there …. these small plastic tubs work great!

Since I have too many strips lying around, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that you can do with 1 1/2″ strips or a combo of 1 1/2 and 2 1/2″ strips.

Here’s a block I think I will be using in an upcoming project.

The center of the star is the only 2 1/2″ piece. Everything else in this block comes from 1 1/2″ strips! This is how 4 of those blocks look together:

I think this is going to make a fun quilt. Now I just have to decide how big!

Here are some other blocks that can be made with strips that you have lying around:

This variation of a log cabin uses a 2 1/2″ black squares cut from a strip with color print and tan print 1 1/2″ strips to make the “logs”.

There’s the simple, but fun 9-patch block that can be made completely from 1 1/2″ pieces cut from strips. Or you can make the blocks bigger by using 2 1/2″ pieces cut from 2 1/2″ strips.

How about a Dutchman’s puzzle block? In two sizes!

This first one is make with all 2 1/2″ pieces and the second one is made with all 1 1/2″ pieces.

And here is the rail fence block:

This is a fun variation where you have the 1 1/2″ strips, but also do a flip and sew corner on the inner bars of the rail fence to make a center friendship star!

Here are some other things you an do with strips:

• Add some strips and checkerboards to an “orphan” block and make a small candle mat for an instant gift.

• Use strips to make some fun borders on a quilt to make it larger.

• Finally, make a scrappy binding!

Here are a few of my current patterns that are made using my strip piles. The first one used the log cabin variation above. It’s called Crisscross Cabin Blooms:

Then there’s some smaller table runners like Paper Lanterns:

and Bloomin’ Spools:

I bet if you look through a block book, you can find many, many more blocks that can be made with your strip collection. The fun about that is that you can make the blocks as scrappy as you want!

So, grab your basket of scraps and start creating!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne