Who is feeling scrappy this week? I know I am! This week I started a new sew along using Lori Holt’s new book called Scrappiness is Happiness. Since I feel like I don’t have a great system in place for my scraps yet, I decided to use one of Lori Holt’s scrappy fabric bundles and I paired it with her scrappy backgrounds. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE scrappy backgrounds in quilts. I’ve never done one of her sew alongs before, so I am excited to be part of this one and get started!

Since this scrappy bundle had to be cut at Fat Quarter Shop, the fat quarters were not folded individually. This was a huge problem with picking out fabrics and handling it. I had to take the time to fold each fat quarter, but found that it gave me a chance to really look at the fabrics and appreciate the different prints!

Week 1: Buzzy Bee Block

Don’t be intimidated by the first step in this block! The bee antennae is actually pretty easy to do. I found that pressing open in this part of the block made the most sense.

I chose my favorite yellow fabric from the scrappy bundle. It’s actually more orange than a straight yellow color, but the flowers on it are so pretty and the color really stands out! The rest of this block is a breeze after that! I did press differently than Lori, but I find that pressing open on bias seams and pressing to the side on straight grain and cross grain seams will help achieve a really flat block.

Here is my buzzy bee block! Such a cute pattern and it went together easily.

Week 2: Calico Mushroom Block

This block is absolutely adorable! Yes, there are some very small squares that are used, but they are not that hard to sew and trim like you would think. This is actually a very beginner friendly block. For this week we are making two different sized mushrooms and I knew instantly that I was going to make them different colors. I decided on a big light blue mushroom and a small dark green mushroom.

I had two colors to choose from for the bottom. I decided on a light brown print because I didn’t want my mushrooms to look sickly with grey bottoms. I think I made the right choice!

I can’t get over how scrappy my backgrounds look! It makes me super excited to see this quilt when it’s done, but we have a long way to go before we see that. This will be a long sew along and we are just getting started! I hope you enjoyed this and I’ll see you next week for the Monday post. Happy Sewing!

– Leslee