Scrap Quilts – My Tips to Create Your Own

Hi Everyone! I had fun sharing tips on scrap quilting last week, so I decided to continue this week with more. Specifically on how to build one. Since we covered color theory, choosing fabrics and building a stash in earlier posts, I think you are now ready to play in your stash and create your own masterpiece. This week, I will cover tips I have relied on over the years to build some of my scrap quilts. Hopefully these will inspire you. Let’s get started!

Simple One Block Quilt Scrappy

Now that you learned to build a stash from last week’s post, let’s put it to good use. The easiest way to learn how to build a scrap quilt is by starting with a simple one block quilt. I touched on that briefly last week, but here is a more detailed explanation with tips.

Let’s start with a simple three color, one block quilt. I’ll make my example easy by using a 36 block quilt with a yard each for each color print. Here’s an example of three colors:

Now, when I make twelve blocks from each color print, this is a drawing of what the quilt would look like:

That makes a nice looking scrap quilt, right? However, what if you wanted to make it even scrappier? You can expand the color choice. Instead of one yard each of the three color prints, split those yards into 1/3 yards so you will have nine 1/3 yard cuts of coordinating fabrics. Here’s what it looks like when I took those three fabrics above and chose six additional coordinating fabrics:

So now that I have nine color prints, here is a drawing of the same quilt pattern from above with four blocks made from each color print:

Wow! All the sudden your quilt is scrappier with not too much effort. Yes, it will take a bit of math to figure out how many pieces to cut from the assorted fabrics, but not much.

Scrappiness Within Blocks

Now look what happens when you combine the colors above within each of the blocks:

Let’s take a closer look at playing with blocks that are more than one color and showing what happens when we play with that. We’re going to use this block below:

One way to play with this block above is to add blocks with a different color print substituted for the green print and also shifting where the black print is placed in the block.

In the example above, I added a red print for some of the blocks and I shifted where the black print would be. In the red print blocks, I used the black as the center of the focus where in the green print blocks, I used the green print as the center focus.

Now look what happens when I add in more color prints and alternated where the black print fabric is:

You can get even more adventurous by putting two color prints in each block with the black print. Here’s how some of those blocks would look:

Doesn’t that look like fun? If you want to really go crazy, sit in from of a scrap bin (like I did with some of my examples last week) and just pull out a different color for each block unit. Here’s an example of what you can get:

I kept the black print accents in each of the blocks to add the secondary design effect (and also the calming down of the chaos) I talked about last week.

Some Additional Scrapping Tips

Tip #1: When you decide to make a scrap quilt that is not completely random, planning helps. Make a copy of the finished quilt from the pattern and color it using colored pencils to represent the fabrics you want to use. You can also do this with individual blocks.

Tip #2: Be bold with color! In a scrap quilt, you can play with joining many colors you wouldn’t ordinarily pair up. I mentioned this last week, but it’s worth repeating. Since there are lots of fabrics in the quilt, the chaos seems to work.

Tip #3: Use what I call “color mapping” prior to starting a project. This kind of ties into the example I showed above with the nine different fabrics. Make a copy of the diagram of the block that makes up your quilt. If there is not a clear diagram in the pattern, pull out some graph paper and draw one, then make copies. Then assign a number to each of the color print fabrics. Once that is done, number each block element showing where you want that color to appear. This will help you calculate how many pieces to cut from each color print.

Tip #4: This kind of relates to the above tip. Once you have your color mapping and it’s time to cut out your pieces, keep them organized by labeling and stacking up each set of pieces cut from each color print. For example using the above map, I would cut out and keep the color print 1, 2, and 3 pieces for each block separated into three separate stacks based on the combinations shown above. By being organized, you won’t accidentally stitch the wrong piece into a block.

So I hope these tips help build your confidence to tackle a scrap quilt. Leave a comment or ask any question you may have in the comments below. I will enter you in a drawing for my quilt pattern, Twilight Desert.

This pattern will give you the opportunity to use my tips above, especially the organization tip when cutting out the block pieces. The drawing will be on Monday, March 25th. Good luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Cheryl Nesbit!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne