I am fortunate that many of my online quilting friends have generously shared their fabric scraps with me over the years. Those have been turned into several scraptacular quilts but it seems that I’ve gotten bogged down. That is, it has become rare for me to sew from non-scrap stash even though I keep adding yardage to it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the process of sewing from lots of scraps and I am forever grateful to those who donate to my insane pursuits, but I sometimes do feel like I’m working with someone’s garbage. In fact, one quilter did send me her trash–mostly unusable fabric dust–and it can feel insulting to embark on the search for treasures in her donations. But most send me clean pieces–small pieces (though at least 1″ square)–and it’s thrilling to wonder what to do with it all.
But it’s time for me to clean the slates. I want to use the rest of these scraps so that I can focus on making quilts from yardage without guilt. And so I am making this Compost Quilt inspired by this antique quilt that I learned of through Tonya’s stunning project..
I have cut the remaining scrap fabrics into squares (2.5″, 4″ and 5″) and strips (1.5″). The 5″ squares will be mailed off to NV to a quilter making a value quilt; the other squares will be stored for two on-going projects and the strips are becoming this.
Here’s the idea: sew 1.5″ strips together into one gigantic strip. Then use this big strip to make 12.5″ square blocks that are 12 strips wide. Ta da! In the end, the blocks are arranged in an alternating pattern as in traditional rail fence quilts, but with a little care in the outer blocks which are not alternated. Take a close look at the photos in the link (above) to the antique quilt.
I plan to keep making these blocks until I get bored or until I run out of 1.5″ strips, so this could be a pretty big quilt…or it might just be my usual size. We’ll see.
YOWZA! Love it. (BTW my husband said he had a Ron Swanson burger the other day. I said, Huh? What? He said it was a patty of 1/2 beef, 1/2 bacon that was grilled topped with much more bacon and cheese. Reminding me of: “I’ll take all the meat you have.”)
Fantastic! Love the idea of using all the fabric up, I’ve been saving my scraps for years. Thanks for proving I’m not just a hoarder!
It’s looking great so far! Love all the scrappy color. :)
gorgeous & fun!
I think I will give this a shot too! I have so many little scrappy strips everywhere. I bet I could just add scraps as I go along and then put the quilt together over time. You know, like that hex I have been planning but haven’t bought hexes for or bothered to start….
I am so in love with this!
Your blocks are inspired! I bet it’s an amazing feeling to use up all of those scraps.
I think my strip my be about 3 miles long! LOL
Aptly named and looking snazzy already.
P.S. I heart Ron Swanson and burgers.
wow, it looks ambitious. good for you for cleaning out the scraps.
more Ron Swanson love here too. You had me at Meat Tornado.
It looks awesome. I can’t wait to see how it grows.
I probably don’t have to tell you that I love this. But I will because I do. I love this.
I had a quilt like this when I was a kid, made in the thirties by a great aunt, probably with eight-inch blocks. No idea where it is now. Yours is wonderful.
What a great process. This will be a beauty.
Wow, I love this idea! I feel like I’m starting to become overwhelmed with scraps as well. I’ll have to start some strips. Thanks for the inspiration!
i am excited to tell you that you have inspired a friend and me to make something… it involves foul language and we are very happy about it!
Ho. Lee. Cow. Amazing doesn’t cover it… LOVE it!
Is there any order or thought to the colors? I can’t imagine controlling where they would fall (the stripping and blocking would ensure a lot of randomness), but are you weeding out colors as you strip?
love it.
Are you just putting all the ‘strip pieces’ in a huge pile and picking them at random?
I have enjoyed seeing Tanya’s progress, but the colors in that picture are amazing – and enough for me to start looking through my scraps for strips. Thank you so much for sharing your take on this project.
Whoa! I love it, love it, love it. Scrap quilts terrify me and seduce me. I don’t think I could ever take the plunge and make my own but I could stare at them forever looking for random fabrics, themes, whatever. This is gonna be awesome!
Oh man, this is gorgeous already!
Wow! I love this.
It’s going to be gorgeous!
I say YES get rid of all that garbage scrap as soon as possible and let the fun begin!
Scraptacular! I have a ton of cut fabric chunks left over from this extravaganza (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kateri/5912121348/in/photostream) and this would be a dynamite way to use them. Otherwise I may just leave them in the front seat of an unlocked car, like people are always threatening to do with zucchini at this time of year…
I’m beginning to feel an urge here… I love the look of your project so far (and of the “original” that inspired you). And it’s so simple to make, so even I should be able to do it.
Gorgeous! I’ve definitely gotten some interesting stuff in the mail lately. I now know how to tell what’s polyester from the smell it makes when I’m ironing. But I’m using it all anyway since I did put out a challenge for uglies. ugh. hee hee hee.