Happy September! I’m so excited to share the Superstar Mini Quilt with you. I designed this pattern to be a great way to use up those little scraps we all have laying around and maybe learn a new skill – Foundation Paper piecing! (If you have questions on how to do FPP, see the previous blog post for August by Jitka Clement. It’s perfect!)
The Superstar Mini Quilt is a very quick and fun block and I hope you enjoy making it once or several times!
Grab the pattern here!
My favorite part of the quilting process is choosing fabrics from my stash and using tiny scraps that might otherwise go in the trash *gasp!*. There have been several years where I wasn’t able to buy fabric very often. When I did have some extra cash to spend, I shopped sales and grabbed random bolt ends that I liked but wasn’t sure what I would use it for. When it came time to choose fabrics for a project, I went to my stash where I usually found everything I needed (with some adjustments, which we will discuss below). And that is how my love for scrappy quilting came to be. I used to be afraid to stray outside of a designer fabric line but now I can’t stand to stay within one! Give me scraps or give me death!
When making a scrappy quilt, you might think “It’s scrappy, I can just use whatever I want.” That can be true in some cases. However, you may not get your desired results because not filtering your scraps can make it a bit chaotic and overwhelming.
Here are a few tips I think about when pulling fabrics/scraps for a scrappy quilt.
1. Determine your color scheme and shade. Narrowing your fabric selection to a few colors will make it a lot easier than trying to work with everything! Ask yourself these questions to help,
How many colors/prints do you need/want?
Do you want the fabrics in the same shade or vary between several shades?
Do you want the ombre effect?
Do you want it super scrappy/random?
A Rainbow color scheme is a great way to start sewing scrappy because it’s very straightforward and everyone loves a rainbow quilt! Choose a few fabrics from each color and run with it!
I have a few scrappy quilts below to show different styles of scrappy fabric selection.
Quilt #1 The Ecuador Flag. I gathered all my reds, blues, and yellows I wanted to use. I left out the fabrics I thought were too loud and distracting and went for a scrappy/random layout. There are several shades of each color included and I arranged them randomly so the darks and lights were scattered throughout the quilt.
Quilt #2 The Ombre Puff Quilt. This was a lot of fun to develop the color scheme as I kept pulling fabrics. I started with pink, and then kept adding different shades of pink, yellow, orange and white until I had enough to fulfill the pattern requirements. This was arranged in Ombre pattern with all colors melting into the next.
Quilt #3 The Scrappy Birthstone Quilt. A rainbow scrappy quilt! What could be better? This quilt was a lot of fun to choose fabrics for as well. I only needed a few prints for each color, which simplified the process because I didn’t have to blend too many prints within each color group.
Grab the Scrappy Birthstone quilt pattern here.
2. Be mindful of the quilt pattern you’re making. Are the pieces small or large? This will determine what type of fabrics you should choose. You don’t want to cut up a really large beautiful print into 2” squares as you will lose the interest of that fabric and the color won’t read the same in every cut square. This applies to scrappy and non-scrappy quilts but I bring it up here because a scrappy quilt can get pretty busy and larger prints will make that more intense. Therefore, I like to choose fabrics that are good blenders, small to medium prints and some solids to neutralize the chaos.
3. DON’T BE AFRAID! Start your project with an open mind. Choose fabrics that you like even though you might be unsure how they will blend with the others. I love to pull random fabrics and I’m usually surprised at how well they blend together. Scrappy quilts are generally forgiving and it’s so much fun to spot the random prints mixed in.
4. (This may be the most important one) BE FLEXIBLE!! When choosing from your stash/scraps, you may not have enough to fulfill the pattern’s requirements. That’s ok! This is an opportunity to bring more variety into your quilt and make it unique. I usually plan to break up larger fabric requirements into a few smaller pieces. For example, if a pattern calls for 1 ½ yards of background fabric, plan to break it up into 3 half-yard cuts or 6 quarter-yard cuts, etc. I love the variety and character this adds to the finished quilt. It also extends the life of my favorite prints if I want to use them for multiple projects.
5. Lay out all your chosen fabrics and stand a few feet back. If there was a print that scared you up close, stand back and see if it blends better than expected. I did this with a recent project I was working on. I had limited choices and a few prints were just weird to me. But I added a few extra fabrics as backup and proceeded with the quilt. By the end, the prints that felt so wrong in the beginning looked like they belonged there.
6. Relax. Sewing scrappy means going with the flow and working with what you have. All of my favorite quilts were born from scraps. Sometimes I had to sew small scraps together to get a piece big enough. Or I had to add in a different fabric to meet the requirements of the pattern. It’s so much fun to go along with it and make something truly unique.
That’s all the wisdom I have! I hope this gives you the confidence to branch out and try something new! Welcome to the scrappy quilt club!