Crazy Squares for scrap busting

For anyone who’s interested, a set of pics to show how I do it. My first ever attempt at something resembling a tutorial!

I find that working on 6-10 at a time works for me, as I like a production line, you may prefer to complete one before moving on.

1. Cut pre-shrunk cotton backing into squares.  You can get very mathematical here, but I wouldn’t bother- the squares will end up slightly distorted and need to be trimmed anyway.  I suggest approx 6″ squares as a good size.

 

 

 

 

 

2.

Green scrap bag, sorted and pressed

Sort out and press your fabric scraps. I go by colour, and try not to duplicate fabric used in any one square.; this means I use between 9 and 12 fabrics for each one.  This is personal preference, do your own thing!

 

 

3. Have the ironing board, pressing cloth and scissors set up at a good height to use while sitting.  This saves time!  If you have one of those brilliant little quilting irons, set it up by your machine.  I need the pressing cloth as I mix all sorts of fabrics, but I’m a slob and keep the iron set to fairly high steam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Cut out a piece of fabric to go in the middle.  I find that four or five sides works best. [Maths teacher head: quadrilaterals or pentagons!]

5. Choose your first contrast, find or make a straight edge, and match it right sides together to the longest edge of your centre piece.  Machine in place

**I don’t worry about colour of thread, and use up all my leftover bobbins for this, which makes me happy!  I also don’t always bother to back stitch.  This stuff isn’t going anywhere, trust me!**

If you are making loads at once, do step 5 onwards to all your squares, I sometimes even attach a piece of fabric to more than one square at once.  I’m a little devil I am!

6. Press back into position…[Don’t be tempted to miss out the pressing- I’ve seen tutorials where the ‘teacher’ just rushes on, and the end product is too much of a damn mess, even for my taste!]

7…and trim in line with the straight edges of the ‘centre’ piece.  [You might like to draw linesfor this if you’re a neat freak, I just hack.  All the edges end up hidden anyway, and you can cover a multitude of sins…] I sometimes cut the ‘outside edge’ parallel with the seam, sometimes at an angle.  For clarity, I’ve marked the cutting lines in purple on this one.

8.Moving clockwise [or not if you’re left handed] line up the next piece and repeat from step 5 onwards until the whole square is covered.  I sometimes end up with a corner piece that looks too big, and add a triangle  or some such to taste.

It doesn’t matter if there are tiny gaps at the edges, that will vanish into seam allowances when you use the squares

9. Zig zag round edges.  Press from wrong side.  If it makes you happy, trim off all the thread ends from the back, but it’s not needed.

10. Stash them until you want to make something- quilts, cushion covers, bags, etc etc.

 

Lap quilt for my parents

a burgundy set for youngest daughter

the back of this had batman fabric on…

pink and girly for doc-daughter

Hope that’s of some help to anyone who wants to have a bash at this, and isn’t too boringly obvious!

PS I measured up and found I’d made more than 51m of bias binding.  Oh My!

Over 51m of bias binding, woohoo!