Unify diverse fabrics in scrap quilts

Written by Diane Harris on March 2, 2026. Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Inspiration

One of the tricks to making cohesive scrap quilts is finding a way to unify diverse fabrics.

In my Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts trunk show, I talk about using “glue”—something to hold all those fabrics together. Today I’m sharing a few types of glue along with examples where they’re used.

Color

Using a single color for a scrap quilt is an easy way to achieve unity. That one color automatically holds everything together quite nicely. It’s such a simple idea but I think it’s true.

Scarlet Spin by Diane Harris for Quiltmaker. Photo by Mellisa Karlin Mahoney. Used with permission.

Scarlet Spin came together easily because “all reds clash well,” according to the late Mary Ellen Hopkins. If you’re brave and you use all the reds together, it will work. You truly can’t mess it up.

I used fire engine red, salmon red, hot pink-red, deep red, orange-red and more. I need to make a few more red quilts because my red drawers are overflowing. I’m drawn to red and I have to restrain myself from buying more.

Lucky is another one-color quilt, and this time green does the trick of unifying diverse fabrics. Notice how different the greens are, and yet they play nicely together. The neutral gray and white border is a nice relief from all of that green and also serves as a little more glue.

Shape and Repetition

The repetition of a shape is a great way to bring a variety of prints together. Look at the Irony quilt, a design from Everyday Stitches. My version is totally scrappy.

Irony, my version of a design by Everyday Stitches

The iron repeats over and over, almost in the style of Andy Warhol. Each block uses four fabrics, and all of them touch all of the others. This means that each fabric needs to show up against all of the others in that block.

I didn’t “match” the fabrics at all. Instead, I thought about contrast—how well each one would show up against the others. Every block was a new adventure, and even though the patchwork was simple and the shape was fused with raw edges, I was never bored. I was problem solving the whole time, and it was so much fun!

A few years back, I sewed along with the Tiny Nine Patch challenge on Instagram. Taryn from @reproquiltlover was behind it, and I made several hundred 2.25″ blocks. I didn’t coordinate anything as I made them and I didn’t worry about how they’d work together. I was just making mindless patchwork and enjoying the process.

At first I made two sets: one was bright and happy and the other was mostly Civil War reproductions. I thought I’d make two different quilts. My plan was to set the Civil War blocks with a cheddar colored fabric in some way.

But when I started to play, something entirely different happened.

Playtime is where the magic happens.

I have learned this the hard way. Now I know to listen to my gut and LET things happen, especially the unexpected, unplanned, unforced things. This is exactly how wonderful creations come to be!

I had the idea to frame each Nine Patch with a contrasting fabric, something that showed up beautifully against the block. And I liked how that looked so I kept on sewing.

I don’t want to bore you to tears so I’m going to condense this story. I kept sewing and trying new ideas, and loved the way this black fabric worked:

I didn’t have a lot of it so that determined where I could place it.

Eventually I realized that if I framed a group of blocks with the same fabric, that would add order. The repetition of that fabric would serve as glue:

I kept putting things up and looking and thinking. I was hopeful that it would work.

You can see that not all rounds have matching fabric. Some are totally random. But there is enough repetition to give a sense of order, to calm things down and “glue” it together.

In the end, the ideas that glue this one together are several: shape, repetition, color, rhythm. And guess what? Some of the Civil War blocks made their way into this quilt. I’m so glad I didn’t refuse to consider other possibilities.

I still might make a quilt with that cheddar, it is just SO appealing. But now you too can accept the challenge of going with the flow, and thinking about the glue as you do.

Upcoming posts: I’ll talk about more ways to glue your scraps together into a cohesive piece. Until then, happy quilting!

Please follow and like me!

Tags: color for quilters, inspiration, make extraordinary scrap quilts, original quilt designs, quilt design, scrap quilts, stash sewing