Make Mine Scrappy

Hi, I'm Em from Em's Scrap bin and I'm delighted to be a guest blogger her today. I have gleaned so much good info here, it feels good to give a little back. As my name suggests I'm a scrap quilter. I find it healing; mindlessly sewing scraps together. It's a great pick me up when I'm not feeling my best. This quilt was made with my leg propped up on a pillow draped over my little garbage can after knee surgery. Yes, I am a die hard. So thankful I had all those pre-cut 2 1/2" squares ready, cause standing to cut was not an option.Scrap quilting is also economical. And with fabric prices on the rise saving a penny here and there and still being able to do what you love is a wonderful thing. I pulled bright strips from my scraps for this quilt, and used crumbs for the border. When I was done I still had a bin full of strips so I started another bright scrappy quilt. Sewing out of this bin all weekend.Making all these spiderweb blocks and my bin is still mostly full. I've heard scraps reproduce and apparently mine are very prolific. They do it faster than I can sew.

Scrap quilts are a great way to use up fabric that you wonder what you were thinking when you bought it. I heard recently that if you don't like a fabric you just haven't cut it small enough yet. I am now a firm believer of this. I've yet to make an ugly fabric quilt that I didn't like. And believe me when I started I did not like the fabrics I was using. But somehow in a scrap quilt they all look beautiful.

If color intimidates you in making a scrap quilt. Do what I did with this scrappy, wonky, log cabin. I picked a fabric I loved and pulled scraps that matched the colors in the fabric. That way someone has already done the hard work and you are just pulling from their color scheme.

But trust me I've found when it comes to scrap quilts color does not matter. I probably broke every color rule in the book when I was making this quilt. I put whites and creams together, brights with muddy colors. I didn't worry about what color was next to what. There really was no rhyme or reason to it other than I used light colored fabrics for the background and medium and dark for the stars. And that is the key when it comes to color and quilts. Color does not matter as long as you have a good mix of lights and darks. If you have a hard time with this here is a little trick to help you out. Put your camera on black and white and look at your fabric selections. If you have a good gray scale, meaning a good range from black to white with lots of shades of gray your quilt will look good.

Thanks for reading my post. I hope you found it informative and that it inspires you to try a little scrap quilting. Have a Happy Scrappy Day!