You may ask well what do I do with these scraps after I've saved them. So, let's get to the quilts you can make and then in my next blog we will talk about storage and organization.
Look at this first quilt. This quilt is the Crazy Quilt, or some similar ideas or names can be a crumb quilt the pieces are sewn together with no real set pattern or reason. The beauty of this quilt is you are not stuck with just using cotton as with traditional quilts. Velvets, silks, and linen can also be used. There is also the adding of embroidery, buttons, ribbons, and lace I have been collecting items for this quilt for some time and I plan to start it very soon it's one of my goals this year which is why I'm trying to get my ufos cleaned up and finished.
Now one quilt that I love is a two-color quilt. let's not kid myself I love them all, but two-color quilts just do something for me they don't have to be all the exact same color and they are a great way to use up scraps while making a beautiful piece of art. My friends have all made a red and white /cream colored quilt and I really want to make one I'm just not decided on the pattern there are simple strips as shown or one of my favorites the tree of life. There's the wedding ring quilt or possibly the log cabin, which looks awesome using scraps and my person favorite which is hanging in my closet right now waiting to be quilted, a pineapple quilt with black background it looks so primitive. I hope to get the applique finished so I can get it on the long arm, again UFO's. why do we do this to ourselves?
Now the most common of scrap quilts are either strips or blocks. The blocks I prefer for my scraps are 2.5-inch blocks yes crazy I know but when sewn them into strips of 3 they come together fairly quickly. The squaring up can be tedious but well worth the effort.
And now for the craziest of quilters we have the postage stamp quilt. There was a woman in my quild that made a postage stamp quilt, and it was gorgeous all those little squares and I believe she did the sewing by hand yup a true crazy quilter...... I bow to her. It's not as easy as it looks it needs to be square and not doing that can ruin this quilt. Now most people will sew it into blocks of say 10x10 units. It's easier to fix one unit then to have to toss it, because let's face it no one wants to rip out these tiny blocks it ruins them they shred so my professional opinion is work with small units, starch starch starch, and once you have a 10x 10 unit sewn recheck their size. And lastly be very cautious of your quarter inch seam.
And so there you have it. now this is not all the designs you can use your scraps on there are books and bloggers who just do scrap quilting which is a great way to clean them up and possibly you could donate or gift without filling our landfills. Textiles are one of the top waste items in this country next to food and plastics. So, let's use it up and wear it out.