Scrap Quilt Advice from My Friends the Experts

Written by Diane Harris on June 5, 2017. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

Stash Bandit is all about making scrap quilts, often from the fabric you already own. I asked some well-respected industry folks for their best tip, trick or advice about making a scrap quilt. Enjoy!

“All fabrics can work together in the same scrap quilt, as long as you have enough different ones. If one sticks out, it just means you need to gather more! Think transitions. Start with two colors and find others that bridge the gap.” ~Brenda Groelz, Director of Marketing and Education, Handi Quilter

“If it’s still ugly, you just didn’t cut it small enough!” ~Bonnie Hunter, Quiltville

“If you are new to scrap quilts, pick a color and pull everything from your stash, whether scraps or yardage, that contains that color. Pay no attention to scale or value (as someone else said, the more the better on those anyway), focus only on the color, and just start making some simple blocks, like nine patches or simple stars, using all those fabrics and maybe one neutral. You’ll be hooked and amazed by your stunning creation.” ~Beth Kerr Helfter, EvaPaige Quilt Designs

“Don’t be afraid to PLAY with your scraps. Some days I feel like sewing, but I don’t want to start a project. That’s when I’ll try a new block idea. Play with a new tool or technique. Experiment with color combinations and move the colors and values around just to see how it changes the look. You’ll have a Quilt’s worth of blocks handy the next time you need to whip up a utility quilt or donation quilt.” ~Anne Wiens, author of The Thrifty Quilter and originator of the TQ system, host of Thrifty Quilters on Facebook

“You paid $9, $10, $11+ for it. Use it up!” ~Ruth Wasmuth, scrap quilter extraordinaire and longarmer at Ruthie’s Quilting

“When pulling scraps, just make sure to pull various scales of prints as well as different shades of the same color to give your quilt some texture.” ~Gudrun Erla, GE Designs

“Why use three fabrics when you can use 30?” ~Marti Dyer-Allison, prolific quilt maker at 52 Quilts

“Having a tiny bit of a Type A personality, scrappy quilts can be a challenge for me. I’m one of those ‘controlled scrappy’ gals. I find that if I just use a single background to quiet it all down, I’m happier with the outcome. Oh, how I wish for the freedom to just reach in a bag and sew the next piece of fabric that’s pulled out.” ~Kari Carr, New Leaf Stitches

“I like to use lots and lots of fabrics in my quilts, as in ‘more is more.’ However, I try to maintain a difference in value between these fabrics and whatever my background (‘neutral’) choice is. For backgrounds, I like to use multiple fabrics that are what I call ‘interchangeable’ with one another, i.e. pretty similar in value. Some examples are black on white prints, or mostly black prints, or a variety of sky blue fabrics. ‘Neutrals’ to me might be any color.” ~Margaret Kennedy, scrap quilter and artist

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or is it one quilter’s trash…My quilty friends have seen me rescuing wonderful scraps that they were throwing away and now they know to save them for me. There are many quilters who don’t like scrappy and are happy to pass them along to a quilter who does. Scraps from other quilters really help round out and add variety to your own scraps.” ~Jackie Hughes, mom to many, scrap quilt Hero