Scrapbusting sew-along - Week 4

Welcome to another week of scrap busting! This week we're choosing backgrounds and completing a block.We should now have a range of sizes, with blooms no bigger than 10".

There are so many ways to choose your background but I'm going to keep you to one colour palette for the purposes of this sewalong. You can decide whether you make each block a mix of different scraps, keep one fabric to each block, or maybe you have the perfect background colour that you wish to use for all your blocks!

To choose your background colours, take a handful of your blooms and lay amongst your favourite colours. I even go so far as to photograph them. This works much better than just one using bloom. Then one by one remove the options until you are happy with the selection. Your variety will depend on what you have and what you are happy with! For example, in my original quilt I used a different green for each block, but kept it the same within each individual block.

For the next step, ideally you need larger pieces than before. My ideal size is 3-4" strips that I can then use to encapsulate my bloom as seen on the photo. I work in a clockwise motion around the bloom. And then I trim square. Larger blooms will usually only need one strip, smaller blooms may need more - maybe as big as a long quarter (25cm x 110cm). If you are using lots of smaller strips you can continue as before going around the bloom like petals until you are reached the desired size.

I’m aiming for a 13.5" unfinished for the block size which nicely goes to a 13" finished block with a scant quarter inch seam allowance. But as long as all your blocks are the same size they can be smaller or bigger and it will be fine!

Note:  If your blooms have ended up considerably smaller (for example 6"), you may wish to shrink the size of the block otherwise you may have a lot of negative space around your bloom.  And there's your block!