This and that on a Wednesday....

and, as sometimes happens, I haven't been doing anything very interesting. Some major cleaning and sorting is going on in the sewing room. Major Mess right now!! I have, however, been doing some sewing each day,part of the "clean up" process. Last week I showed you a few of the all flannel Mile A Minute blocks I've been making in an 8.5" size. I thought I'd share a few more ideas or details about how I make them. I think it's sometimes hard for younger sewers to toss all the "rules" out the window. With MAM blocks, the "toss" is fairly essential to a happy outcome. Forget straight lines, forget rulers until the very end, forget straight lines. Just pick up any two scraps that appeal to you, and sew them together. *VBS*
 In the first picture of this collage, what I wanted to show you is the 3 small pieces above the blue and pink flowers, and below the blue 3 little pigs scrap. That little strip is 3 pieces of flannel,about 1"+ high and about the same width. I didn't sew the 3 of them together to be FRUGAL. I did it because it adds interest and movement to the block. Many quilters wouldn't bother with pieces that small, I find them valuable in the look of the quilt. It's harder to work in the smaller pieces, more time consuming, but part of my process. In the second picture, I began with the frog square...a scrap that came in with Dionne's last donation. Using it like a log cabin center, I built the block around it. What goes with what doesn't matter much to me *VBS* Sometimes, as in the 3rd pictures, it's just narrow string pieces left from backings. And in the last picture in this collage, an assortment of my scraps, Betsy's scraps and donated scraps. There are baby clothes left from making burp cloths and Sponge Bob Square Pants, they seem to play together very well.
 In this last collage we've got pictures with grown up type flannels next to "totally" baby flannel. My MAM blocks often have various pig fabrics. Betsy collects fabric with pigs and she shares scraps with me. I don't aim for the really narrow pieces you will sometimes see in my blocks. If it's an 1"+ I use it. Sometimes the starting point will be a leftover 4 patch, or a couple of 2.5" square Some of these pieces are trim away from making flannel pillowcases. And you probably have noticed there aren't really any red, blue, yellow, green, etc pieces used. The darker, color intense scraps are in a different bag for another MAM quilt. I also toss the plaids, checks and other "country" type colors and patterns into a seperate pile. I seem to have the most scraps left from baby quilt backings. If you make more comfort quilts, or snuggle quilts for adults, you'd probably have more of that type scrap. Making the MAM blocks is also a great way to use up odd colors of thread, where appropiate. I wouldn't sew any of this batch with black or other dark colors.