I save my scraps — all of them. And I often pick through the scrap bins of others. Borderline hoarder, maybe?
I just LOVE zoning out, going into a creative trance and sewing together tiny random pieces. It feels a lot like doodling on paper – don’t think, just do, and see what comes of it.
I organize and piece my fabric scraps several ways: Sometimes I just throw scraps from several different projects into a pile and start sewing them together, and see what happens! Sometimes I’ll sort and sew by color and other times sort and sew by type of fabric (i.e. denim, old T-shirts.) Here are some examples:
SORTING AND SEWING SCRAPS BY COLOR:
Scrap bins sorted by color
I’ll take these and just start piecing to create very random blocks by color
Green Scrap Block
Yellow and White Scrap Blocks
Pink scrap blocks
And you can put them all together and to make things like these…
Proton
Scrappy Jewels Quilt – Honorable Mention San Francisco Quilt Guild Show 2015
Blue Wave 2020
Green Scrappy Star
Rainbow Squares Quilt
RANDOMIZED SCRAP BLOCKS
These are blocks or pieces I made after putting aside scraps from several unrelated projects and then just putting them together to see where it took me. These are among my favorites because it puts together colors I’d never have thought of putting together deliberately!
A River Runs Through It – Detail
A River Runs Through It
A River Runs Through It – Detail
Color Worm
Wonky Corners Triangle Scrap Quilt
Wonky Corners Detail
Abstract Reasoning (WIP)
Living Room Lap Quilt – Mostly Marimekko Scraps
Parrots
San Francisco Waldorf HS Auction – Wonky-Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt
DENIM SCRAP QUILTS
You can’t go wrong with lots of denim – kids outgrown jeans (or your own, ahem…) These are projects that were more “designed” and planned than those above. But I consider them scraps quilts, too.
Long Family Pants 2016
Julian’s Outgrown Jeans Quilt
Miraloma Kindergarten Alphabet Friends Quilt
Denim Flannel Rag Quilt Detail
Denim Flannel Rag Quilt
Long Family Recycled Jeans Picnic Blanket
Gee’s Bend Inspiration Quilt – made from old jeans from the Woodruff-Long Family
DID I MENTION SAVING T-SHIRTS?
Yes, there is that time when your child outgrows an entire wardrobe in the span of a few months. My kids have been their adult height for a while now, and I still have T-Shirts from when they were very little. On the docket: Make a quilt (or two) for my son from T-shirts I’ve saved, and make a family quilt from tie-dyed T-shirts our family collectively made over the years from our beloved Camp Mather vacations. I did manage to produce one T-shirt quilt from the collection, though. I love this one for my daughter.
Adrienne’s T Shirt Memory Quilt
Adrienne’s T-Shirt Memory quilt Circa 2012
A dear friend lost her husband suddenly. She’d mentioned that she and her daughter had been going through his things and didn’t know what do do with all of his T-shirts. He had a wonderful collection through the years representing his activist and caring past. It was a delight and an honor to make this for them. It was given to her college-aged daughter as a remembrance of her wonderful dad.
Rick’s Memory Quilt 2017
