Take Scrap Quilts to a Whole New Level
Look At Your Scraps with New Eyes!
Scrap quilts have long been loved by thrifty quilters, as they provide the opportunity to use up leftover fabric as well as that re-purposed from clothes and other uses. “Anything goes” scrap quilts have an endearing quality that is pure Americana.
However, scrap quilts have always required an investment in fabric inventory. It takes more fabric in the form of scraps to build a quilt than large pieces (think seam allowances), so they’re not always the thriftiest choice.
During the depression, scraps were accumulated by trading, buying bags of scraps from fabric mills, or long-time collecting from sewing projects and family clothing. Today, quilters save leftover fabric from other quilts, eventually accumulating enough to make scrap quilts.
A wonderful book by Lissa Alexander, Oh Scrap!, contains a preface by Barbara Brackman that goes into intriguing detail about the history of scrap quilts. The book itself is a wonderful primer in how to use scraps to best effect.
While “anything goes” scrap quilts are lovely, Lissa provides interesting and useful insights that will allow you to take your scrap quilts to the next level. She’ll show you another way of looking at colors and prints so that your scrap quilts sing.
The book contains a brief but excellent overview of color terms and how they relate to quilts. It also goes into how to store scraps for easy use, and then provides patterns and tips for 12 wonderful quilts. A color swatch accompanies each quilt so you can see the variety of colors used.
Just looking through the book is incredibly inspiring, but the color and construction tips are priceless. In the end you’ll learn how to use your scraps to best advantage, in striking quilts that rise above ordinary.
Oh Scrap! was published by Martingale.
