Whenever I have a set of six coordinated fat quarters, I like to make small quilts from the Yellow Brick Road pattern, by Atkinson Designs. According to the pattern, six fat quarters will make either a 48" x 48" quilt or one that measures 48" x 57" when borders are added to the pieced blocks.
For a recent charity lap quilt, I worked with a collection of fat quarters in fall colors. Following the instructions in the pattern, 20 blocks were made. When set together, 4 blocks wide x 5 blocks long, the quilt top measured ~36" wide x ~45" long.
The other lap quilts that I have been making are square, measuring around 36". None have been larger than 45". Since I used most of the fabrics in this collection, I did not have enough fabric to make more blocks. So I removed the last row and finished off one lap quilt.
I now had 4 leftover blocks. What could I do with them? From my stash of leftover fabric scraps, I gathered fabric pieces in similar fall colors. I scrappy pieced 12 more blocks, trying to use mostly fairly large "chunks" of fabric (so the blocks would look much like the YBR blocks),
Scrappy piecing the blocks was much more time consuming than making the YBR blocks! But it was a good use of scraps that I'd collected, and a new lap quilt was "born".
I've studied the pattern to see how to use it to make only 16 blocks. It might work to use only 5 fat quarters--the blocks will be pieced the same, just fewer of them and less variety of fabrics. This is something that I will try in the coming weeks as I continue to make lap quilts for the local VA hospital. :) :)
