Monday, May 25, 2009

Scrap Quilts


Michelle at With Heart and Hands has asked people to post about scrap quilts on Memorial Day Weekend. A good idea, I think. The list of links on her blog is worth looking at.

I love scrap quilts, especially real scrap quilts, not the ones where you buy new fabric and cut it up into nickel squares or 2 1/2 strips for a scrappy look. :) A real scrap is a piece of fabric left over from another project, or from old clothes, although I'm not that much of a purist. I just use "new" leftovers.

Scrap quilts are good for guild service projects. They fulfill two needs: making good use of something that might be wasted otherwise, and providing something warm for a child who needs it. Here are two I've made. One is string pieced squares cut diagonally and put together with a solid to make the star pattern.



This one is all novelty prints. I made various kinds of four patch blocks 6 inches in size and used the yellow sash. Isn't yellow a great neutral? It tones down the busyness but still looks bright and cheerful.


The quilt on the bed at beginning of the post is one I made based on Mary Ellen Hopkins' idea. It's supposed to be an on-going project, and it sure can be. It took me about two years to make mine. The block is made out of 2 1/2 inch squares. You cut your scraps into squares, separate the lights and darks, make a bunch of the diagonal half light, half dark units, sort the pieces into piles in a large flat box, and whenever you're stuck w/o something creative, you can just make a few of these blocks. They're a split 9-patch that can go together in any log-cabin type of setting. This setting is called Woven Ribbons, I believe. I saw a picture of it without any explanation, so my husband and I worked out how to do it. It's easy (sort of) once you know how. I posted on this earlier if you want a close up of one of the blocks.

10 comments:

Libby Fife said...

All three of those scrap quilts look great. One of the first quilts I made was a 9 patch scrap quilt. Each block is completely different so I sewed all 9 parts of each block! Is nearly 40 too old to have a blankie???:)

Michele Bilyeu said...

Love your scrap quilting. The hills are alive and definitely singing today ;) Thanks also for pointing out the difference in how we look at 'scraps' as well as use them in our work. To so many, using scraps means fabric in their stash as opposed to actually using leftovers...a whole different level of re-use. Your quilts show that both are beautiful and that both planning and intuitively using them creates wonderfully different looks! Fun blog, Kay!

Anonymous said...

I love scrap quilts. I am busy making quilts at the moment with all my fabric, just so i will have scraps :)
I particulalry like your woven ribbons quilt.

szkornelia said...

I also like all of the scrap quilta you have shown, especially the second one with the star. I really love that design.

Liz in Kansas said...

I'm not a huge fan of scrap quilts, but you have done a great job on yours. The 4-patch really looks pulled together with that yellow sashing. Maybe I'll take another look at scrap quilts . . .

Debra Dixon said...

Love your woven ribbons quilt!

Nellie's Needles said...

Fun! In their appearance as well as it sounds as though you had a good time creating them

*karendianne. said...

What I really get from this wonderful display is reinforced. Reinforced by the breadth of your talent. I've said that before but I don't think I'm going off the rails by repeating it again.

jenclair said...

I agree, a real scrap quilt is made from left overs from other projects. That makes them special for memories, too!

Barbara C said...

What a great collection of scrap quilts. Your star quilt is fabulous.