Tips for How to Make a Scrap Quilt

Last year, you may have seen me working on a scrap quilt project, the Mindful Quilt Along. It was a block of the month pattern, where the goal was to practise daily sewing/ creativity by making just one block at a time, with a finished quilt by the end of the year (you can read the inspiration behind the project here). Early in my quilting journey, I loved seeing scrappy quilts but was intimitated with how to actually make them work, so today I’m sharing my favourite tips with you!

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I think that there is something truly magical about a quilt made with fabric scraps: the range of colours, textures and randomness that somehow just all seems to fit together perfectly and best of all are a reflection of your favourite fabrics.

But there is also something a bit scary about them: how will the mish-mash of fabrics and blocks all look beautiful and cohesive at the end?! Surely some planning is needed?!

So, today I would like to share with you my journey to making the Mindful Quilt and my thoughts on how to make a scrap quilt that you are happy with (and is actually finished!).

How to Choose Fabrics for a Scrap Quilt

First up, let’s chat about what size fabric scraps to keep! It’s important to say that ALL fabric scraps can be used – even the teeny tiny pieces can be used as stuffing or donated to schools for art projects.

For quilting projects, I keep any fabrics that are 1.5″ square and up and for this quilt, I wanted to try and work through my scrap pile. The block designs all use pieces measuring from 1.5″ to 5″ square, so it was a perfect way of scrap-busting, and I was also able to include some special pieces from friends.

I often have a colour scheme in mind when I am making quilts, and like to use a variety of fabrics (rather than one collection). So, I will often select fabrics as I go…..and then add in a few more in for good measure!

For the Mindful Quilt Project, I decided from the outset that I wanted a ‘soft theme’ and chose low-volume for the background and autumnal hues/tones for the feature fabrics (see my post here for more tips on choosing colour schemes).

Once fabrics had been chosen for colours, I then looked at the scale of the print. The blocks finish at 4″ so I didn’t want anything with too large a pattern. I settled on a variety of geometric, dots, floral, a few novelty-type and a lot of text/tone-on-tone prints. I love a text print!

At the start of the project, I put all my chosen fabrics in a pouch to keep them organised. This way, it’s easy to grab fabrics that go together and by using some fabrics a few times throughout the quilt, it helps to give some cohesiveness.

To start with, I just made blocks with no particular thought to colour placement or selection – I chose fabric combinations and colours that made me smile.

I aimed to make sure that for the feature (colour) fabrics, I didn’t use the same one more than once each month, so there was a ‘scrappy’ feel.

Generally, as I progress through a quilt, I do like to get a bit more intentional with the fabrics that I use, I have always personally felt that….

How to Finish a Scrappy Quilt Project

During a project, it’s quite common (for me, anyway!) to lose focus and/or momentum. This often results in progress starting to slow down, and sometimes a project even being tidied away for a bit!

For me, the main reasons that lead to this are;

• Not enjoying piecing the blocks: If you are not enjoying how a block is made, have a look at if you can do it another way. For example, if it’s needle-turn applique, could you adapt it to machine applique? For the Mindful Quilt, the idea is to hand-piece but you could always sew by machine! This is your quilt, so make it in a way that makes you happy!

• Find a way of marking quilt project progress: I personally love a tick-chart (I’m the type of person that will add something to my list that I’ve already done in order to be able to tick it off and feel accomplished!). When you’re only working on a project in short periods of time – or it’s a particularly large quilt – it’s easy to feel like you’re not making any progress. Different ways to do this are;
  • Make a list of how many blocks you need to make and tick them off as you go.
  • If you have a quilt plan, colour in each of the blocks as they’re finished. This also helps to see when you can start to join some sections together, which always helps to motivate me!

• Lay the quilt out periodically: with large quilts that are made up of lots of different blocks, it can be hard to visualise how the quilt is going to come together and feel demotivated. If you have space, lay the blocks out together;
  
  • By laying the blocks out (even if it’s not in the final layout) it will allow you to see if all they all work together: is the colour balance okay (eg. is one colour more dominant than another?), are there any blocks that particularly stand out for the wrong reasons (eg. fabric is too bold/dark/light against other blocks).
    
  • Don’t be afraid to make changes! If, when laying out the blocks there is one that bugs you, don’t be afraid to change it! As I got towards the end of my Mindful Quilt, there were a couple of blocks where the fabrics just didn’t fit in with the rest of the quilt – they were too bold in comparison. I decided to remake a few blocks so that I would be happy with the finished quilt rather than regretful!

• When you have enough blocks for a section, sew them together! It helps to feel like the quilt is actually starting to come into being and makes it easier to layout as you progress through the quilt

I am so happy with how the quilt came out in the end – it is my version of perfectly scrappy. Now to decide how to quilt it!

I hope you’ve found this useful for making your own scrap projects! If you fancy making your own scrap quilt, don’t forget to check out the Mindful Quilt Project pattern here,

Have you got any tips for making scrap quilts that I’ve missed? I’d love to hear them!

S x

Today’s sky::: Grey…..we had snow!!!

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