5 Games to Spark Creativity and Use Up Your Scraps
Let’s face it - we all end up in a creative slump at one time or another. For some people that means not being able to come up with a new idea, for others being overwhelmed with too many ideas. Today we are going to talk about 5 quick and easy games that will help to spark your creativity and get you past any creative block you might be having; and best of all you can use your scrap stash for all of them!
Color Block
Looking to finish some blocks and break through a creative block? This is a great game to try. All of your blocks are going to be either 9-patch or 16-patch blocks. Roll a dice to choose your block size:
1= 6”
2,3= 12”
4,5= 18”
6= 24”
Then you are going to roll the dice twice more to figure out what two colors are going to make up the block:
1: Red
2: Orange
3: Yellow
4: Green
5: Blue
6: Purple
This is a great way to just keep making fun easy blocks and easily build up a fun stash to help make great donation or gift quilts.
Build a Block
Tired of trying all of the latest trends and just want to go back to basics? This is the perfect game for you. Use this to make a 24” mini quilt, using (9) 8” blocks. Roll the dice 9 times and write down the different blocks (for an added challenge you can roll for a color for each block as well).
1: Half Square Triangle (HST)
2: Half Rectangle
3: Four Square
4: Rail Block
5: Solid Square
6: Hourglass
This is a fun way to build a quick, modern mini quilt that you can practice your quilting on as well.
Theme It
Snowball blocks are a great easy way to practice the stitch and flip technique and at the same time highlight a key motif. I love the idea of using this to make an “I Spy” Quilt or a “Matching” Quilt. If you are making an “I Spy” Quilt you can make just one block for each motif; for a “Matching” Quilt you will want to make two of each motif. If you are having a hard time picking themes, I suggest rolling the dice to help you pick:
1: Animals
2: Flowers
3: Tools
4: Halloween/Fall
5: Christmas/Winter
6: Beach/Summer
Or use other themes that better suit your interests (or stash), maybe things like Disney, Sports, or Travel.
Shape Match
Are you a fan of English paper piecing (EPP) and looking to mix it up a little? Then this is the game for you. First choose a size, remember in EPP size refers to edge size not overall size of the piece, so that everything you work with will go together. Personally I recommend going with 1” or 1.5” since they will be large enough to work with but not so large to become unruly quickly. Then you are going to roll the dice every time to choose what shape piece to add next.
1: Hexagon
2: Honeycomb
3: Square
4: Pentagon
5: Diamond
6: Triangle
This is a great way to see how different shapes work together and work on building potential new designs.
Layer It
This is a great way to build a scrappy log cabin mini quilt (or create a variety of blocks to turn into a larger quilt). This is a lot of fun because a roll of the dice will change the width of the strip each time you add a new strip. In this case the inches listed include seam allowance since we don’t want the strips to become too wide.
1: 1.5”
2: 2”
3: 2.5”
4: 3”
5: 3.5”
6: 4”
The best part is that you can just keep building out the block as long as you have long enough strips!
Hopefully this gives you some ideas for fun ways to overcome creative blocks, get your sewjo flowing and use up parts of your scrap stash. I would love to see what you make! Please share with me on Instagram by tagging me @createdesignmake365 so I can see all of your fun creations!
Happy Sewing, Siobhan
