Tropical Twist

You know your quilt-a-long is a good one when you finish the block of the week, and you feel like doing another block!

I'm participating in Moda Blockheads 2, and I'm trying to use up my plethora of snowflake scraps to make my blocks.


I wasn't too happy with the tiny triangles left over from my block 5 Impact because they were too small for my existing HST project. The snowflake I designed this week for block 8 Pineapple was bigger than the official 6-inch Moda Blockhead block, so I decided to try to use up some of those tiny triangles to turn my appliqued block into a 12.5-inch block.

After playing around with the scraps for a few minutes, I came up with a plan.


The tiny little triangles finished up into just over 1.5-inch squares!!! These are some of the tiniest squares I've ever pieced! When I finished the block, Lizard told me I'm getting really good at matching up my points. I think I married the right guy!!!

I used some background Kona Royal to enlarge the finished block to 12.5 inches. I'm trying to include some Kona Royal in every block so the blocks look like they go together, even though they are constructed from scraps.


I still had enough time before bedtime to make one more block, so I used up some inch-wide strips (and a few that were slightly wider or slightly narrower) to make a traditional 6.5-inch pineapple block (one of the alternate block patterns offered last week) using the old-school method. I did not paper piece, which is really exciting because I didn't waste paper, didn't have to peel the paper from my block when it was done, and I didn't have to replace my sewing machine needle. Also, if my grandmother ever made a pineapple block, this would have been how she did it because she didn't paper piece. She taught me English paper piecing, but she never did the sew-through-paper type of piecing.

Some of the scraps I used for my second block were a tad too wide or too narrow. I decided to go ahead and use them as is because it didn't make sense to trim away the excess into unusable scraps and it made perfect sense to use the skinny scraps instead of cutting other scraps to fit. I'm in love with the scrappy look of my second pineapple block!


I haven't had the time yet to begin the quilt-as-you-go portion of my project, so I can still show off my blocks so far. This is going to be one awesome quilt!


I also worked up a scrappy flag for Alycia's Flags for Sue Quilts of Valor project. I incorporated scraps from my first Quilt of Valor last year, plus a snowflake scrap. I couldn't resist! I think at last count, Alycia has 125 flags from all over! She's still collecting flag blocks until September 1, so if you have any red, white and blue scraps, this would be a great and fast way to use them up and put them into one of the best uses available.


Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict and My Quilt Infatuation and Oh Scrap.

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