Saturday, February 13, 2010

To make a scrap quilt:

scrap quilt


Ok, well, here it is, in all it's half-finished glory! Please don't be critical of my wonky lines, I think they're going to look super when it's all put together!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To make your own scrap quilt:




Technically, making a scrap quilt is really, really easy, It's collecting the scraps that is the difficult and time consuming part. I have had quite a few emails asking me how I made the quilt, so I thought I'd share the details, although please be warned: this project was not planned, it just kind of grew from something small, and I didn't do anything clever like plan block sizes, or use a rotary cutter to ensure angles were correct... but you could, and in fact, maybe you should!


1. Find all your little scrap pieces and make sure they are all neat and ironed, and flat!



Scraps_1
2. Match up pieces which are a similar length or width, and start to make some small blocks.


Scraps_2 


3. Make sure that you have your iron set up right near your sewing machine, so that you press flat the seams as you sew. This picture is the backside of the patchwork.


Scraps_3 


4. Start to join the smaller blocks together, and follow the same principle until you get some larger blocks. Then, you just join all these blocks together... it's that simple!


Scraps_4

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


And I'm sure there are some people out there with some amazing scraps to work with, and a lot more space and experience with quilting than me, so I'd love to see some links if you decide to use this idea.


Since finding my second box of scraps I've been colour sorting. I now have a bag of red, blue, green and yellow, and a bag of 'white background with lots of colours in the print'. I've trimmed them into nice rectangles and squares using my rotary cutter, and I've started stitching them together. I plan to make some bags and small softies-- I'm thinking maybe a guinea pig? Upon stumbling on this little pink elephant on flickr, my mind has been filling with cute ideas...



patchwork elephant

It's by Abby Glassenberg, and she blogs about it here, and it's just one of about a million fabuolous things to discover on the blog.

Well, I hope this modest little tute answers some questions, and helps some people out!

B.



10 comments:

Susan L said...

I love the glorious wonkiness of your quilt. It looks perfect like that. PS What a great way to use up all your leftovers.

Christy said...

That's the cutest scrap quilt. Hope to make one someday!

Stephie @ narrativeself said...

That's a lovely, lovely quilt - and I think the 'wonky' lines really add to the effect. I love the way some of the lines are closer together than others. In fact I think that's my favourite bit!!

Bianca said...

Your quilt is GORGEOUS!

beck said...

Thank you so much for this! I am keen to start a similar quilt but haven't known how to start. I don't have a rotary cutter but maybe I should invest in one. I love the idea of using up the little scraps and this is a fab way. Love the look of yours and the elephant too. Thanks for the link x

Kajsa Wikman said...

Love your scrappy quilt and the quilted lines!!

sophie said...

The quilt is beautiful, I love all kinds of scrapiness! I would love to see a guinea pig softie - they are such a neglected little creature and they are soooo cute!!

Virginia said...

Love the scrap quilt! Come to think of it, I have tons of scraps... Hmm. And I think that doing a few blocks at a time wouldn't take up a lot of room in our apartment.

gretchen/juneatnoon said...

The quilt looks awesome! I am a huge fan of wonky lines, personally!

abbyjane said...

I'm so glad you like my elephant! Your quilt is lovely!