As you have noticed, I’m a scrap quilting nut. I love to have a “riot” of color in my designs. Some of them are true scrappy. By this, I mean that I sit next to a tub of scraps and pull out a different piece of fabric for each piece of a block. This is a lot of fun and has made creations like this pattern of mine called Crisscross Cabin Blooms:
And this pattern called Twinkling Log Cabin:
Then there is the kind of scrap quilt that is a little more “planned” like my pattern Scrappy North Stars:
This pattern takes 54 fat quarters. Before you cut out pieces for this quilt, you pair up dark color prints, medium color prints and background fabrics into what I call “color sets”. Each color set will make a certain number of blocks. The dark color will be on the outside in some blocks and on the inside in others. This is a one block quilt, but due to the variety of fabrics, it’s still really interesting and fun to look at!
So now, it’s on to some of my tips for a successful scrap quilt. When you are making a scrap quilt, you are usually using at least 5 or 6 different colors of fabric for variety. But, when you are piecing your quilt top, it never fails, you get the same colors right next to each other or clumped together on one side of a block or quilt. How to remedy this problem?
Tip #1: I number the fabrics. For example, if I have a blue, purple, green, pink and gold fabric, I will number them 1 through 5. If you have 20 different fabrics, you can group them by color family and then number them. Once they are numbered, I then take a diagram of the quilt block or quilt top (you can make a copy of the block or quilt from the pattern and enlarge it if you need to) and write numbers on the quilt top pieces. As I am numbering, I make sure the distribution of the colors is even!
This example above is for a small wall hanging. I call this “color mapping”.
Tip #2: Are you worried that you are going to sew rows or block pieces together wrong after carefully planning the color placement above?
As you can see by the photo above, I have the sections numbered starting with #1. Section 1 is to be sewn to section 2 and then section 3 is sewn to the bottom of section 2 and so on ….. I started doing this when I flubbed on color placement a few times when transferring pieces from my design wall to my sewing machine. I would end up sewing the wrong pieces together and not notice it until a whole border was done and I saw the same colors clumped together. Then …. it was time to “unsew”. An we all know how much fun that is!
I use the sheets of the little square Avery stickers (#5418 Multi-Use Labels) to number my pieces. Here is the complete row laid out and ready to be joined:
Tip #3: Another thing I use these stickers for are “directional” arrows. As you can see by the units above and looking over my pattern diagram above, the triangles face different directions based on which side of the quilt they are on. In order to keep me straight, I draw a little arrow on one of the small stickers and place it at the top of a row so I know which way is up.
As you can see, organization while piecing a scrap quilt is essential if you have blocks or pieces with similar colors. Of course, we always seem to miss something, nobody’s perfect! But this will help you to have the scrappiest quilt you can.
I hope you liked this brief “tutorial” on scrap quilting. Now hit that stash and start stitching!
Leave me a comment below on your favorite scrap quilting tip. You will be entered into a drawing to receive one of the above patterns from my collection! Good luck!
Happy Quilting!
Deanne
I’m retiring in August and can’t wait to try your “tricks”. Love your quilts and ideas!
Thanks and congrats on your upcoming retirement!
The scrappier the better…I love scrappy quilts. Thank you so much for the great tips!
My favorite quilts are scrap quilts – thankyou for the tips
I love the look of scrappy quilts and am trying to learn how to do them, so I really appreciate your tips. I can do planned scrappy, but have a really hard time just pulling anything out of a bag and using it.
Beautiful works of art!
I love scrappy quilts. I use a lot of painter’s tape to label everything. The labels kept coming off for me. That pineapple quilt is lovely. Did you use a ruler, paper piece?
The pineapple quilt was not done with paper piecing or a ruler. It’s done using the stitch and flip method.
I really love your little tutorials. VERY helpful! The only type of quilt I make is “scrappy.” (Last little quilt had 200+ fabrics.)
I love using scraps for various purposes. I have used them to upscale vests, etc. as well as make quilts.
Thanks for the tips I’m working on a new pattern and keep getting the wrong sides seen.
Thanks for sharing. My tip is to try to cut your scraps into squares as you go so the scrap bin isn’t overwhelming.
Thanks for the tip of numbering the colors, using the quilt pattern diagram, and looking at them in dark, medium value, light, etc. I’m doing a scrappy Christmas throw for my twin beds, and I did not know how to approach all these different fabrics from a Riley Blake fat quarter bundle I bought. I googled how to look at color placement for a scrappy quilt, and your link came up. Thank you much!
Hi! So glad my blog post helped you with this. Have fun making the quilt!