When I was looking through the archives on Sujata's blog The Root Connection, I found a photo of this quilt, which I think is absolutely wonderful. It is the same pattern as Keryn and I made for the bushfire quilts, but the blocks we made were 8" finished.

Sujata's quilt used pieces that are a lot smaller, and that makes it very appealing to me. I could literally make hundreds of these blocks! Mine finish at 4" and they are very cute and blindingly quick.
The reason I was so pleased to find this inspiration is that I had a little drawer full to overflowing with precut 1 1/2" by 2 1/2" pieces already. When I'm cutting up 2 1/2" strips, sometimes there's a little bit left over that I can't get a square from. I cut these bits into 1 1/2" pieces, and there are a number of ways I thought of using them. Chinese coin strips, borders for mini quilts, or blocks like Chunky Churndash from Bonnie's site.But I knew these Spinning Rail blocks were so easy (as long as you remember to have them spinning all in the same direction) that I decided to make them my Leader Enders for a while.

I can make the whole block without ironing, just finger pressing as I go, so they seem to mount up in a very satisfying way.

I thought I would make as many as I could from this little drawer, but it's taking longer than I thought. This was so full I couldn't shut it properly, but I've made 60 complete blocks and the components for probably another ten and there's still some left. It's much emptier to be sure, but I wonder if it's ever possible to use things up entirely. There's some sort of magicking involved here, where the drawer refills overnight and I'll just keep sewing these forever....