Positive thoughts

 Hi all! Hope you are having a lovely, lovely week. We got back from the conference, which was pretty good, and the air has cleared up quite a bit. I was still a bit hoarse for my presentation, but at least I had a voice! Glad to be home, though, no matter the weather.

When I got home and rested a bit, I started playing around with some colors and pieces for the Positivity quilt along, sponsored by our friends Preeti and Bernie. You can find all the info and directions for making this year's quilt right HERE.

Here is the first set of blocks I made:

Can you tell these are meant to be fall themed? I wanted to use a bunch of scraps that have been hanging around here forever. These are the darker reds and the golds that I very seldom use, along with a few dark greens and even a couple purples. There's even a really dark turquoise in there. Most of them are leftovers from old quilt projects, and I just could never throw the scraps away. I pulled out everything I had that was at least 2-1/2 by 9 inches and threw it into these blocks. I think they're turning out okay.

The background, which you can''t see very well in the picture above, is this fabric:

I got this from a destash and I'm really pleased with it. The leaves are a dark blue ( I think) and it's way better than a plain beige.

Then, because I'm just never happy unless I'm overwhelmed, I also made these:

Yes, a second quilt. I know, but I had two different ideas, and two separate sets of fabric that I wanted to use up, and the blocks are very, very easy, so why not? I just have some leaves right now, because I haven't settled on a stem fabric, but the leaves are made from beige and other neutral scraps. The green background is just a faux linen tonal that I got from Connecting Threads and intended to use for a backing but didn't. I'll know more when I get them put together, but I think it works so far.

Here's an important question I have about these quilts: I wanted gender neutral colors so that everyone can have a choice of a quilt that suits them, no matter their gender. Are these gender neutral? I think they are, but then I look again and they look feminine. I'm probably just second guessing myself, but what do you think?

And here's the question I know you're asking: how do you use scraps to make these blocks? It's pretty simple-- you make shorter tubes:

I made tubes from Preeti's directions, just shorter, then cut one leaf block from each tube. My tubes are about 9 inches long. There is fabric waste, and you won't have any blocks for a second project, but it works. I think you could probably figure out how to cut the different strip lengths for less waste, but that sounds like too much math for me. 

And those are my Positivity projects! You can still join in-- the quilt along doesn't end until Labor Day. And the blocks are really, really easy, too. And now you know you can use scraps, too!

Everyone enjoy the rest of the week!

Sharing at Midweek Makers and Preeti's Positivity linkup.