Scrap happy.......

When I bought this issue of Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork & Quilting magazine August 2011 issue, I knew I wanted to make this quilt on the cover.  I like "scrappy" looking quilts and I like easy patterns.  It was just what I needed to use up some of the fabrics in my stash.  I'm trying to not buy a lot of new fabric right now.

I really like simple patterns like this Rail Fence.  It is smaller strips than I like to work with.....1 1/2".....but I'm doing OK with it.  I dug through all of my stash baskets and chose a selection of my favorites from each color.....

......greens, my favorite!....

....yellow, orange, and red.....

.....black and brown floral and patterns (I like black in quilts).....

.....and the blues and purples!

I have been collecting neutrals ever since I saw the magazine and decided to make this.  So, armed with my colors and my neutrals I began sewing 5 strips together.....3 color and 2 neutral....to be chopped into blocks.

It wasn't long before I decided that neutrals are boring and I really wanted to put the colors together!  I love lots of color!  So I made some with 5 strips of color to be mixed into the final layout along diagonals.

Here are a bunch of the finished blocks laid out randomly.

Today I began to sew the individual blocks into 4-patches.  I decided to do it that way instead of sewing them in strips.  I don't have a big enough bed to lay out as many as I need to in each row.  I will have to add more blocks to get the top big enough.  Haven't decided if it will have borders or not.

That's what I'm working on! 

I'm loving playing with all the pretty fabrics and picking out combinations. 

I hope to have enough strips left over to do a log cabin with the same strips......we'll have to see if I am sick of them by the time I finish this one!