scraps

Earth Day 2021 is feeling refreshed and renewed.  Indianapolis had hail, snow, and some wintery mix this week.  I thought this was spring?  These crazy weather patterns are a result of climate change and we all have made an impact.  Quilting is an industry full of waste and consumption.  It’s the part that I hate about it.  You have to buy a line of fabric quickly because they may not reprint.  A certain designer puts out a new line and it’s gobbled up.  Over the last couple of years I have shifted my focus away from consuming and focusing on my love of scrap quilts.

Give me your scraps and I can make something awesome.  Here are some scrap quilts I have made with friends or other people’s scraps.

I also believe every baby should have a handmade quilt.  Friends come to me with a gender or color palette.  I can make a Simple Squares quilt in a day or weekend.  My scraps are usually stored in certain sizes so doing a pull is pretty easy.  Then I dig into my larger scraps to offset.

The simple squares is one of my favorite quilts to make.  It’s great to see the combination of colors and prints come together to be something unique.  There are one or two already organized to be made.

Another favorite is half square triangles.  These also come together quickly when you have your scraps ready to go.  There are a variety of ways you can manipulate a half square triangle as well.

My scrap bins are usually overflowing and my favorite part is digging in.  Start gathering and playing, ideas start to come to life.  Then those scraps become something new entirely.

Using scraps is not only sustainable, but gives projects so many options.  You shouldn’t be afraid to play with scraps to see what you can make.  Some of my favorite quilts have been created by just playing.  Most of the time I don’t know if they will work, but I love the process.

My love of scrap quilts is not going away.  I have even found someone that will tiny scrap pieces for her projects.  There is a bag ready to be shipped once I finish my next quilt.

Tired of your scraps?

Try a swap with friends, check Instagram for destashes, or organize one in your swap.  Seeing new options will sometimes help spark creativity.  Also it’s okay to give some away if you aren’t inspired.  Partner up with another quilter so you can keep a scrap pipeline going.

Some people aren’t into scraps and that’s okay.

I love scrap quilts because they are economical for stretching your fabric investment.  Plus, you are creating less waste.  Sustainability was not something I thought of when I started quilting.

Do you make scrap quilts?  If not, let’s connect.  I will take those scraps off your hands.  No, seriously.

My solids bins was overflowing with strips. Earlier in 2021 I decided it was time to really tackle some of my scraps.  The solids bin had not been used in a few projects.  So why not create a scrappy solids strip quilt. For the longest time I have admired solid strip quilts that I’ve seen.

Rather than tackle everything all at once, I started just sewing one morning for 20 minutes or so.  I did sort my colors from the grays and whites in my solid scrap bin.  This part went quickly.

Soon there was enough to look at making blocks.  Time for some starch and a hot iron.  I sewed the strips into rectangles and then pressed.  It was satisfying to see the blocks start to add up.

All of these blocks had to be trimmed.  This was a bit of improv sewing on my end.  There wasn’t really a size I had in mind either.  Some were long, some were wide.  I love that there was no plan.

On a weekend without the boys I set out to make the top.  For some reason, I thought this would only take a few hours.  The sewing Gods laughed at me and this top took forever.  I had it all laid out among the legos on the floor and made it almost impossible to enter the room.  So, I had to finish the top so the boys could play in there.

I needed a few more blocks to round out the top.  As I put it together I realized it was not big enough for a baby quilt.  Honestly, the photo above barely put a dent in my solids bin of scraps.  I busted out a few more blocks.  To make my original version I would have needed probably another 40-50 blocks.  Sometimes you have to know when to just stop in a project.  There will be more solid scraps that I can play and work with later.

I quickly basted this quilt with some yardage in my stash.  I did have to add a solid piece on the side to make sure it was just wide enough.  For quilting, I went with free motion in loops.  I wanted the quilting to fade into the design and this actually worked.

 

Finishing the Quilt

Forty minutes later it’s done and ready to be trimmed.  This took some work to make sure the quilt was even on all sides.  Slightly challenging considering there wasn’t a set size for the blocks.  Let’s just say I improv trimmed as well.

For the binding, I had a blue solid fat quarter that I used.  Once bound I quickly washed it.

Tip – always throw a Shout Color Catcher into your quilts the first time you wash them. 

Here’s an important step when you’re dealing with a scrap quilt, all the extra little threads.  I find the more you use and play with the fabric, the more it frays.  Those little frays love to come through on the top.  This is why I always wash a scrappy quilt before giving it to someone.  I can trim all of those little threads and make it a non-issue.

We have had some crazy winds here making quilt photographs almost impossible.  We had a day without a ton of wind…so out to the fence I went.

The backing was just perfect and used many of the colors from the front.

This quilt doesn’t have a home yet, but feels good to make some room in my solid’s bin.  I should have made it bigger, but I was ready to move on to the next project.