When I started this project, it was more like an experiment than a project.  I just wanted to see what I might do with my 1-inch and 1 1/2-inch scrap strips.  So I pulled out a set of yellow ones that I had in quantity, and made the first round of tiny pineapples.  One thing led to another, and before long I had 30 of the little devils.  To make them less devilish and small, I framed them with 2-inch strips and squares. That's 30 7-inch blocks.

Now what?

Since my 30 blocks were a combination of 12 with light corners and 18 with dark corners, that presented a design challenge to put them all together.   I finally settled on 5 stacks of 6 blocks, with the 12 light corners on the outside and the dark corners in the center.   Not ideal, but better than anything else I tried, and it had the virtue of simplicity.  It wasn't what I would have planned, but then, I didn't plan, did I?

Even with the wider strips framing the pineapples, they were still very busy-looking blocks.

Not to mention that they still only added up to 30 x 35 inches.

Solution:  turn the blocks on-point and add alternate plain blocks.  Perfect!  I love how the corner triangles of the pineapples and the corner squares of the frames form "chains" across the quilt.

Finding the right fabrics for the alternate blocks turned out to be an interesting exercise.  My scrap collection now includes a sizable stack of 7 1/2-inch squares, all the rejected candidates.

I discovered that, even with fabrics that are basically all one color, some prints are very busy, while some are exceedingly boring.  Zoom in on that photo and you'll see what I mean. 

Take that dark pink:  busy.  It isn't so much that there's a lot of pattern, but the value contrast within the print is rather bold.  And the pale green?  B-O-R-I-N-G.  It's a tiny, fine print of two very close-valued shades.  

Mixed all together, the alternate blocks finally achieved a balance.  I also tried to balance the lighter and darker values by concentrating darker ones in a center diamond.  Then I framed it all with an airy black & white print, for a complete change of texture.

It still isn't finished, though at this point I'm not sure what will come next.  I'm thinking of a series of borders.  Maybe I'll actually plan something, for a change.

​For the pineapples with the dark centers and corners, I used darker fabrics in the corner squares, and for the light-center pineapples, light corner squares.  Then I paired a medium and a light for the two sides of the box. ​

​The real challenge was to work with whatever happened to be in my boxes of scrap strips, and especially to try and use up some fabrics that I had in excessive quantities.  

​Often, I find I work best when I have limitations.  It forces me to focus and to go into problem-solving mode.  Having too many choices makes my head spin.

Now that I had all these beautiful blocks, the next step would be figuring out what to do with them.

To be continued ...

It was fun for about 30 blocks, but honestly, after a while, it started to be tedious.  I was arranging the blocks on my design wall as I made them, and seeing how long it took for those 4-inch blocks to add up to any size at all was pretty discouraging. ​

Clearly, I was NOT going to make an entire quilt from miniature pineapples. 

​To be continued ....... 

Random placement of fabric:  it's an interesting concept.

Lots of quilt patterns call for arranging fabrics randomly: all sorts of scrap quilts, charm quilts, and many other multi-fabric designs. Have you ever made one of these?  

If so, tell the truth ... how truly "random" were you? I want to know, because I'm trying to assess my level of obsession.

I simply can NOT bring myself to arrange my quilt patches randomly. Casually, yes. Randomly, never. I might start by tossing all my patches up on the design board, willy-nilly. But then I spend HOURS carefully re-arranging them, seeking some elusive perfection in balance of color, value and texture. Should I seek professional help?

This obsessive tendency really gave me fits with all those randomly-colored bias squares. There were 800 of them! OK, really only 720, after pulling out the corner triangles, then only 640 after pulling out the red ones for the center blocks. That's still a LOT of possible juxtapositions to consider.  

Sewn together into left and right-handed pairs, there are 160 pairs of each persuasion (left & right, that is). These now get combined into little 4-pair stacks of lefties and righties. That will be 2 lefties and 2 righties for each of my 20 blocks, for a total of 80 stacks.  

To be continued .....

​I promised you a chart for using all those scrap strips, and here it is (finally)!  Click the link below this post to download the PDF.  

The chart has a grid showing how you can combine scrap sizes.  For instance, if you make 4-patch blocks from your 2-inch squares, or make 9-patch blocks from your 1 1/2-inch squares, you can easily combine them with your 3 1/2-inch squares to make bigger blocks.  (And believe me, you DO want to make bigger blocks.  As much as I like working with all those tiny bits, even I don't want to make a whole quilt from 3/4-inch strips...unless it's for a dollhouse.)  

There are so many possibilities!  And that's just talking about SQUARES.  If you cut your scraps into strips, like I do, the possible combinations multiply.  I have a gorgeous quilt in the works that started with 4-inch pinapple blocks made from 1-inch and 1 1/2-inch strips.