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.