Simple shapes, diverse fabrics, lessons learned
This week I’m in Houston to share Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts with Baytown Area Quilt Guild.
One of the quilts I usually bring is Framework, below. I made it years ago but it illustrates some important truths about scrap quilts.
Here’s some of what it taught me.
- If the patches are small, you can use all kinds of prints together.
- It helps to organize the arrangement in some way. The darker blocks serve this purpose in Framework.
- Small blocks can be addictive!
I stumbled onto the idea for this design quite by accident. One day I noticed that a few dark blocks on the design wall formed a bit of a line.
And I realized that if I made darker blocks on purpose, I could create imaginary borders.
This was such easy sewing that I didn’t have to think too hard about the blocks themselves. I could concentrate on the other aspects.
Do you see how all of the blocks with whitish backgrounds are at the quilt center? That happened because mixing them in with colored background blocks wasn’t working well. It was too splotchy.
Now I know to choose either white/very light backgrounds, or to use colors. I know that mixing them together doesn’t work well for me.
And the idea of creating areas of emphasis spawned a few other quilts, too. The orange parts of this quilt are an example:
These quilts are made from my favorite little block called a Baby Windmill.
You can find my free pattern for Baby Windmills here.
Beware. Soon you too may have a plethora.
1. Diane’s Best Tips for Scrap Quilts
2. More of my best tips for scrap quilts!
3. Three free starts for scrap quilts
4. Links to the quilts in the trunk show
I’ve been traveling to teach this spring and have another couple of projects going on behind the scenes. So while I’ve been quiet online, things have been humming right along.
Check into booking a program for your quilt group.
See a quick video of what Stash Bandit offers!
You might enjoy these posts:
Diane’s easy quilt labels
Scrappy Backgrounds: What I’ve Learned
Quilt on,
