How do you organize your scraps? I used to just stuff them in a large plastic tub without sorting by color or size. This made it so hard to use them. Everytime I looked at the tub of scraps I felt like it was too much work to sort through them.
Sometime last winter, I ploughed through the tub, sorted the scraps by color and put them in separate clear plastic containers. When I am between projects, I pull out scraps from one of the containers and work on a block or two. Hearts on Point is my first project after the great scrap organization of 2020!
Each block is a 10″ finished square. See Hearts on Point part 1 for a tutorial on how to make the blocks. You can group your scrap squares by color or mix them up to make rainbow blocks.
You can use a single fabric or several different scraps for the background as well. I picked solid white because I had a lot leftover from pevious projects. They are whites from different brands – Island Batik, Kona, and Riley Blake. Pick background fabrics that have good contrast against the heart blocks.
This is the layout for the middle section of the quilt top. A, D, E, F. G are sashing strips. They are all 2.5″ wide. Use the table below to cut your sashing strips. Of course, they can be pieced, which is what will happen if you are using scraps or leftovers.
| Size | How many | |
| A | 2.5″ x 10.5″ | 24 |
| D | 2.5″ x 15″ | 2 |
| E | 2.5″ x 39″ | 2 |
| F | 2.5″ x 64″ | 2 |
| G | 2.5″ x 75″ | 1 |
B triangles are setting triangles. You will need twelve B triangles. Cut three 15.5″ x 15.5″ squares. Cut each of the twice along the diagonals. Each square will yield four B triangles, for a total of twelve. Note that when you cut them this way, the outer edge of the setting triangles are along the length/width of the fabric and not along the bias.
C triangles are corner triangles. You will need four C triangles. Cut two 8″ x 8″ squares Cut each of them once along a diagonal. Each square will yield two C triangles for a total of four.
- Layout the heart blocks on a design wall, making sure you have them in a pleasing arrangement. Leave adequate space between blocks for sashing strips.
- Place the A sashing strips between the heart blocks.
- Place the B and C triangles to complete the diagonal rows.
- Start piecing in diagonal rows. Staring with a B triangle, sashing A, heart block, sashing A, and so on till the last B or C triangle.
- As you piece each diagonal row, bring it back to the design wall to make sure everything is aligned correctly.
- When all the diagonal rows are pieced, start piecing the long sashing strips to the diaginal rows.
- Continue until the quilt top is pieced.
When this was done, I decided to add a scrappy border to it. I went for a simple Seminole-style border using different length of binding scraps I had leftover. I will continue the tutorial for the Seminole border in another post next week and link it back here.
I am joining Swan Sheridan of Swan Amity Studios on her Summer Scrap Elimination this year. Here are all the designers sharing scrap elimination / utilizationideas this summer:
Every Thursday June 17 – July 22: Swam Amity Designs
June 24: Tamarinis
July 1: Vasudha Govindan <— You are here!
July 8: Elizabeth DeCroos
July 8: Allison Reid
July 15: Kathryn LeBlanc
July 16: Leanne Parsons
July 22: Shankari Patel
I hope you make Hearts on Point. If you make one, please share with #heartsonpointquilt on social media.
I used to have all of my scraps in one bin, too, and felt the same about it as you. It created such a mess to try to dig through and find anything. I finally went through them and put them in bins by color – what a game changer. This is a really nice pattern – there’s just something about turning a block on point that seems to jazz them up a bit! Thanks for sharing the tutorial!
Hi Vasudha! Thanks for the fab tutorial. I love making hearts, and scrappy ones are the bomb. Storage for scraps? What?? I don’t have any. HAHAHAHAHA! We have a dresser with eight drawers and each drawer has a different color, in theory. What shares with ecru/beige/etc. Black and brown are together. It’s the prints that are difficult. Sometimes the white background with multi-colors of polka dots is in the white drawer (when there’s room) . . . other times it might be in a pile of polka dots that resides on my sewing table because I don’t know where to put. them. Disorganization is my method. Not Sue’s though – she sighs at me when she sees my pile. I just close my eyes to her. Good thing she is in charge of most of the fabrics and puts them away as she sees fit. I’m going to PIN your tutorial. ~smile~ Roseanne
My scraps are all over. We are moving and I have promised myself to sort by color.
I have my scraps sorted into colours but the boxes never seem to empty. Thanks for the tutorial – I’m making the scrappy hearts as part of the RSC 21 – I’ll have to take a photo and but them on instagram 🙂
This is a great tutorial and a fabulous quilt to work on as you go. Thanks for sharing it!
What a great tutorial – and I just LOVE those blocks!!! thank you!!!!