Scrap Quilting – Unplanned… Chaos or Not?

Scrap quilting is my favorite type of quilting, which you can easily tell by looking at all my patterns. Most of them are scrappy! Scrap quilts allow you to use a large variety of fabrics and also put colors together that you wouldn’t otherwise. That’s the fun. However, sometimes I like to add some continuity to my scrap quilts so they are not so chaotic. That’s what I’m covering this week. 

Unplanned Scrappy

Below are some of what I call “unplanned” scrap quilts. These are quilts where I did not choose the color scheme prior to making the blocks. I just sat in from of a bin of strips and scraps and made each block. Even the tan prints in the blocks are scrappy.

Crisscross Cabin Blooms is on the left and Follow the Stars is on the right. Even with these quilts that were unplanned, I added the stable element of the black fabric within the blocks to “stabilize” them a bit. But, the black fabric is even scrappy! I can also create a secondary design within each quilt by adding this.

The other fun thing about an unplanned scrap quilt is to put colors together that you would not ordinarily pair up. Actually in any scrap quilt I think you can do this. Here’s an example of some unusual combinations in some of my quilts:

Don’t be afraid to pair colors together, like the light blue and the red in the star block on the left. These are colors you may not put together in a three or four color quilt, but in a scrap quilt you can get away with the combination. The viewer’s eye will be busy!

Taming the Chaos

Another way to calm the chaos of an unplanned scrap quilt, besides the one discussed above, is to use one block design in the quilt like I did with Scrappy North Stars.

Here’s a close look at one of the rows:

Same block, but in different color combinations. If this quilt was made up of 30 different blocks in a riot of colors, that would definitely be a lot more chaos. So that’s the key. Pick one block and make them from several different color combos… and you have a scrap quilt that’s a little ordered.

An additional way to tone down very scrappy quilt is to finish off the quilt with a uniform border to contain the chaos, even frame it. Using Scrappy North Stars from above, see how adding the plain black border strip in between the blocks and the pieced piano key border adds a bit of order?

Here’s another example that’s a little different. My quilt, Seaside Cottage, is made up of a lot of scrappy nine-patch blocks in the center. The pieced star border adds a bit of uniformity. Even thought the star blocks are in various colors, the blocks themselves are a little “quieter” than the scrappy nine-patches.

Building a Stash

How do you get the small pieces of fabric to make some of these fun, unplanned scrap quilts? Well, you have to build a stash. I like having a stash of smaller pieces of fabric because that is what I use most often in making my quilts. If you want to do this, here’s some options on how to get started:

Option #1: Every time you are cutting out a quilt project, cut up the leftover fabric instead of just stacking it in a pile on a shelf. If you pre-cut it into smaller pieces or strips, you’ll have fabrics in lots of colors to start a scrap quilt. Store in bins by size and color.

Option #2: Stock up on already prepared pre-cuts. When you shop for fabric, shop their pre-cuts. Many quilt shops have fat quarters, 10″ pre-cuts and 2 1/2″ strips for sale. You can stock up and sort them by color when you get home. Then you’re ready to dive in to make a scrap quilt.

Option #3: Make your own pre-cuts of all sizes and strips cut from a piece of purchased yardage and store by size and color. This is how I build a stash. I like to shop at the quilt store, buy 1 yard cuts of fabric in a variety of color prints and then cut them up into the different sizes: 1/2 yards, Fat quarters, fat eights and strips.

Here’s how I store them:

The last photo (right) is how I store my fat eighths. I roll them and secure them with a clear rubber band (found in the hair section of the big box store). It’s easier to rummage through fat eighths this way since they are such a small piece of fabric.

That’s it for this week. Next week, I will cover what I consider a planned scrap quilt and also how to build one. Leave a comment or ask a question below and you will be entered into a drawing for my new pattern, Country Square.

The drawing will be on Monday, April 21st so you will have two weeks to enter. **We have a winner! Congrats, Deborah A. Keno!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne