Each month Kate from talltalesfromchiconia hosts a scrap challenge called Scrap-happy.  I am glad to be a joining in:). It is a good thing too, because I have had  this scrappy little Maple Leaf Rag quilt waiting in a box for several years now!

I must admit that this quilt  really got the best of me today.  I now remember why I put it in the box for later.  I had cut the strips to 1.5″ before and had piled them in the box.

I thought how nice I was to myself for having these ready to go .  I jumped right in and started sewing strips together .  Easy right?

I cut the sewn together strips into wedges.  I needed 8 going one direction and 8 going the other.  –Oh, now I remember!  These strips, all of them, are not long enough! Every single one of them in the box.  Ugh! I could only cut 7 one way and six another.  But to make matters worse, for some reason my brain went crazy and I cut two of them too small!

I had to hunt around for more fabric scraps and as you can see on the yellow, for some of them I had to just make do.  Really?!

Oh well, get-r done.   Next I sewed them to the foundation piece

I sewed everything in place and stepped back to take a look and admire my work–I don’t like it.  The center is like a big black dot and the outer edge gets lost.  I am going to have to take it all out.  I wanted to put a sad face here, but this is a scrap-HAPPY post:)

So as is sometimes the case, I stepped back, took a deep breath and started again.  But this time I started with my scraps.  A big pile of unorganized scraps just isn’t going to do it for this quilt.  It is a tough one.

I measured the length I need for each strip and then started cutting and organizing.  It is so nice to see the neatly cut strips that really will work in my quilt.  I now know that I am quite a bit short.  But at least I know how much fabric in scraps I need for each strip.

It took me a while to get here, but now I can say that it really has been a SCRAP-HAPPY day!  I feel like I am gaining control of this quilt and my scraps.  SWEET!!

–Tracy:)

I have also linked up with another fun scrappy group called Scraptastic Tuesday.  You can never have too much scrappy goodness:)!