Pick-Up Sticks/Acid Trip coming along

NEW FABRIC TO PLAY WITH!

My quilting mentor Rosanne is working through the book Cut the Scraps!, by Joan Ford.  The book's premise is simple and smart: take your small scraps of quilting cotton, anything under a fat quarter, and cut them into a set of prescribed sizes: 2" squares, 3.5" squares, and 5" squares.  Sort these squares by value rather than by color, so you end up with a pile of lights, a pile of darks, and a pile of everything in the middle.  If you make a four-patch with four 2" squares, it makes a 3.5" square; if you make a nine-patch with nine 2" squares, it makes a 5" square.  Then the book has instructions for twenty different quilts which can be made from squares of those sizes.  I love the idea!  Anyway, as Rosanne is cutting and sorting her scraps, she is making even smaller scraps, little strips that I can then use for string piecing.  So my string piecing project for my brother is coming along, fed by an influx of fabric from Rosanne's stash. 

A QUALITY BASE

As I continue to piece strips on a dryer sheet base, I have discovered that not all dryer sheets are created equal.  Where I work, we do many loads of laundry a day, so instead of discarding the used dryer sheets, I take them home.  We use Bounce dryer sheets at work, and Kroger (store brand) at home, and I have discovered that Bounce Dryer sheets stand up to pressing better than the Kroger off-brand, which are prone to melting under a too hot iron!  (How's that for nearly useless trivia?) 

BLOCK ARRANGEMENTS

I have (by serendipitous inattention) made two block designs to play with.  This picture shows the first design (Block A) on the top row: the rectangles are sewn to the center square at the little triangle corner, so the stripes swirl in a spiral or diamond shape.  The second design (Block B) is on the bottom row: the rectangles are sewn to the center square at the terminus of the wide strip, so the stripes flare outward like a star. 

Top Row - Block A twice; bottom row - Block B twice.

Top Row - Block A, Block B; bottom row - Block B, Block A.

But look what happens when I alternate blocks... secondary patterns emerge and dance, depending on how I focus or relax my eyes.  So cool! 

I will continue playing with design options.