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.