The decision has been made

I've always loved the simple "Shoe Fly" block, and have seen pictures of beautiful quilts made from it.  For whatever reason, I've never made one myself.  I'm sure I must have pieced this block once or twice in the past 30 years, but I don't remember doing so.  Therefore, I'm starting a new scrappy project - who knows what it will eventually turn into? - using this block in a "positive" and "negative" value arrangement.  I'm going to piece these on Scrap Basket Sunday only.  That will give me plenty of time to work on other projects during the week.

I'm also going to cut triangles, squares, bricks and strips for my scrap boxes while I work.  Each piece I pull from the basket will thus be completely used with nothing going back into the basket.  This should - I hope - slowly empty the basket.  Then I can focus on my scraps that I truly love.

I'm showing the back of the blocks also so you can see how I'm pressing these.  I clip the seams so intersections can be pressed open.  If you do this you will be amazed at how much better your project looks without thick seam allowances.  (It makes hand quilting lots easier to, if you happen to be one of the quilty "dinosaurs" who hand quilt - like me.)  Because my plan (right now, anyway!) is to set the blocks next to each other, I'm sticking with the "press to the dark" rule so they will sew together better.  This adds a bit more bulk in the "negative" blocks, but if you flatten them well with steam the quilt top will still lay flat.