What to do with scraps?

An article by Rachel    Comments Off

Scrap quilts elude me. I should clarify. I’ve seen scrap quilts that amaze me. I just don’t have any idea how to make a masterpiece out of scraps. Why is this topic worth a blog entry? Despite not knowing what to do with scraps, I save them. My scrap collection grows and my ideas fail to develop. This behavior has to to stop. Two options: throw away scraps or use the scraps. I can’t stop saving my scraps. It seems so wasteful. I need an idea.

I’m going to start with scraps from my Irish Chain Quilt. I’m making these star points from whole squares.

I like this method. The bias remains under control. It makes quilting enjoyable. The con: it recreates a lot of waste. So I decided to sew another seam 1/2 from the original seam. When I cut, I get my star point and a half-square triangle.

I realize that this idea isn’t original. In fact I’m inspired by my own quilting mom. She is doing the same think with a quilt that she is making for my sister. None the less, I’m doing something with the scraps.

Now I have a bunch of half-square triangles. What’s next? When I trim them they are 1.5 inches square. When sewn to 3 other triangles, they make beautiful pinwheels.

I’m going to make each pinwheel with the same fabric. The scrappy quilter in me isn’t ready to mix up the fabric. Besides I think I would loose the pinwheel design if I mixed the red triangles with the blue triangles.

The end product is still a mystery. I need to see how many pinwheels I get. Right now my thoughts are leaning towards a border on pillows or pillow cases.

Progress Report for Irish Chain Quilt: The chain blocks are complete. I started the star blocks. All the pieces are cut out. Now I get to sew. Since I’m making the half-square triangles, the process is longer. I believe it is worth the effort.