The Making of a Scrap Quilt

I have received several comments about my scrap quilts. For me, scrap quilts are by far the most interesting and the most fun to make. I feel they most closely resemble the quilts that the early prairie pioneers made--which is where my roots are. Quilts were made for a purpose - to stay warm - made from scraps of material used to make clothing and made from recycled clothing - there was no waste. The idea that you would begin making a quilt by going to the store to buy half a dozen coordinating fabrics from a designer's line was non existent.

I collect patterns that I think are suited to scrap quilts. Sources of inspiration are the internet, quilt shows, show and tell at guild night, etc. As I finish a project, I "catalogue" the pieces that are left over. Large pieces are stored in covered Rubbermaid bins, organized by colour. Smaller pieces are cut into useful pieces--strips of various widths, squares, or recently rectangles. Scraps that don't fit into one of these categories go into a drawer by colour for later use in crumb or crazy quilts.

I think of these pre-cut pieces as quilt "seeds". The part I like the least in the quilting process is the cutting out of the pieces. If I keep my fabric cut as I go along, the worst part of the process is over. My bins are already full of quilt pieces ready to be assembled. (This could be why I have so many UFOs--they sit on the shelves and tempt me to try something new!)

Recently, I went through my stash and culled some of the larger pieces that I didn't seem to have used for a very long time. These pieces brought new life to my scrap stash.