Aqua Scrap Blocks plus a Spools block TUTORIAL

The weekend was pretty good as far as getting some sewing time in. I was able to work on quite a few projects plus cut up some scraps, clean a little and organize. The cleaning was necessary because I couldn't find my piece that were precut for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Spools.

Last month I made sure the navy pieces and the spool bottoms and tops were precut....I wasn't sure how much of the greige fabric I had for the spools. And as it turned out there was JUST enough. So I put aside the pieces for 20 blocks and cut the navy....then put it in a container, labeled it, and LOST IT. Yup, I'm so well organized...NOT. Well, today when I was opening every container, I looked under my desk and found a small box with the spools fabric...YAY! Why did I put it there? Who knows....

Want to make this block? It's REALLY easy. DOWN BELOW is a print off from EQ that I used to design my block. There may be similar blocks out there but I didn't see one with a really easy bottom and top of spool. I didn't wasn't any angles...this is supposed to be easy and pretty much mindless....my favorite type of weekend sewing.

It makes a 12" block...12-1/2" before incorporating into the quilt.

So to start I stitch 1-1/2" and 2" string pieces (7-1/2" long) together till I have 7-1/2" x 8-1/2". You could also oversize the pieces a little... maybe 8" long...keep adding strips of any size till it's over 8-1/2" then trim to exactly 7-1/2" wide by 8-1/2" tall.

Cut the spool bottom and top pieces...see the cutting below...attach the spool bottom to a background piece...same size...do the same for the top piece.

Now it's just like a 9 patch to put together...EASY!

Attach the corner squares to the top and bottom...Attach side pieces to your scrappy strip center.

And now just sew the 3 rows.

This is my finished aqua block...February's color at So Scrappy RSC17 the RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE for 2017.

Here's the print off with all the measurements for making the block...I used (2) 1-1/2" x 7-1/2" strips and (4) 2"x7-1/2" strips but you could use any combo and trim it to 7-1/2" x 8-1/2".

So that was part of my sewing this weekend... I also made another Hazel the Hedgehog for my Fancy Forest quilt. I made her in this months color of aqua and teal since I had those pieces out.

I'm up to 4 critters...long way to go but boy are they fun to make!

lkj