Some tips about scrap quilting

Hi Quilty Friends,

I've received lots of comments and emails about how to get started on a scrap quilt, so I thought I'd address some questions here...

From Shannon:

Q: Is this a pattern or do you just make it up as you go? I would love to use up my scraps, but have no idea where to begin with it.

and Gail:

Q: I have LOTS of scraps but I am like Shannon - do you have a pattern or how do you start?

A: There is no pattern, just a sew & go, make it up as you go along kinda quilt.

I'll go through some of the steps that work for me and see if I can help a little.

• SUPPLIES: Normal quilting supplies; your size favorite square ruler (mine's a 9 1/2" sq); non-fusible/non-woven interfacing
• COLOR: For my One Mountain, Ten Quilts project it was important that all of the scraps worked together, so that is how I organized the scraps.  It is important to have some order to your scraps in terms of color, so deciding a color palette, theme, or flavor is a good place to begin. 
• FABRIC: Sort your fabric by sizes; leftover strips make great string quilts, and little tiny pieces work great for crazy quilts
• BLOCK SIZES - make the block size manageable 6" to 10" is good
• FOUNDATION - I'm a huge fan of sewing on lightweight non-fusible/non-woven interfacing.  I use this for crazy style quilts or string pieced quilts.  It doesn't add any significant weight to the block, and it keeps everything orderly - especially those pesky biased edges.  Cut these foundation blocks to an inch+ larger then the finished size you have selected.  These blocks really draw up in the sewing/ironing process
• IRONING: Take care when ironing the interfacing - it will shrivel if it's too hot, so turn down the temp a little
• QUILT SIZE: Baby Quilt / Queen size quilt - any size will work; just keep making blocks til you run out of scraps.  More blocks equal more quilts!
• HOW TO UNIFY A SCRAP QUILT: There really is some magic to making a scrap quilt work; what appears totally random is usually organized chaos.  Again, group fabrics by color or theme; pick a unifying element such as a sashing, a repeated color throughout the quilt, something that will bring all of the various parts together - be consistent in this element.
• FLIP & SEW BLOCKS - I don't paper piece, but I think of the flip & sew method as paper piecing without all the hard work, and the numbers. 
• START SMALL (CRAZY QUILT BLOCKS): Start randomly sewing your tiniest bits of fabric together, create patches about the size of your palm.  Just keep making them up until you're sick of it, or you run out of those tiny bits. Trim these pieces so they have a clean edges all around.  Think of these as your center starting block.
• NEXT: Lay one of these prepared units (right side up) in the center of a foundation square.  Lay a second piece of fabric large enough to cover an edge (right side down), stitch, press out, and continue on until you have covered the entire block.
• TRIM: I love square rulers, and I have them in lots of sizes; trim your block using the appropriate ruler...ta da; you have a block!  Repeat, repeat, repeat!
• JOIN: Determine the size of your quilt, layout your blocks in a pleasing fashion; start sewing rows, until your quilt top is complete.

Before you know it, your mountain of scraps will become a heap of quilt tops!  Don't fret over these instructions - find out what works best for you, and go with it!  This is low tech sewing meant to be fun and relaxing!

Okay, ready to get start...GO!

Comments

[Natalie]

Thanks for sharing your tips. Sometimes all those scraps seem intimidating. But I love the idea of a scrap quilt.

[Mary]

Thanks for your tips--great stuff! For others, I would definitely recommend that people read Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston. She doesn't have patterns, but talks a lot about her process, and I found it really helpful to think about things that way.

[Bronwyn]

Here comes a stupid question :)

I, too, have piles of scraps and want to start piecing. Can you explain your use of interfacing?

I'm sure it's obvious to anyone who knows better, but ... *blushes*

I also wanted to show you what I've been doing with my great grandmother's quilt tops.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5452954&section_id=5451640

I'm not trying to advertise, I promise! I wanted to get your thoughts on these, if you have any suggestions for improving them? I haven't tackled full-size yet, although I have 3 of grandma's quilt tops that I want to finish for our family. I'm too afraid, I think. And they're too big for me to machine-quilt on my regular machine. To tie them feels like cheating :-/

Tips? Advice? Critiques? I'll take anything!

Thank you, your website is ever an inspiration!
~Bronwyn