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ritaweeda

Don't read this if you don't dig scrappy...

ritaweeda
10 years ago

But for the rest of you I have a question. (BTW I happen to love scrappy). I have 2 huge tote bags stuffed with very small fabric scraps, strips, squares, triangles and irregular blobs. Have any of you ever looked at your same kind of stash and wondered what to do with them that doesn't involve a lot of pre-planning or figuring out what size to use in a project? And have any of you done something successfully? I know there is more than enough of this to do something but I don't want to do a lot of thinking about it beforehand. (BTW I'm also lazy.)

Comments (21)

  • bev2009
    10 years ago

    I'm having a lot of fun with crumbs. I sew them in the evening when I watch TV. It's mindless and I love how they look. I'm trying to use some yellow in each one so there is some sort of cohesion, but I actually need to buy some yellow if I am going to continue to do that.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Crumbs

  • bev2009
    10 years ago

    I decided to look at the crumb quilts again and opened the link. All the verbiage is gone, only the blocks are there. I don't know if the rest of the post will come back, but she shows the steps and a completed quilt.

  • magothyrivergirl
    10 years ago

    Bev - I believe the verbiage you want is linked below.

    Rita, I am not a fan of scrappy -- but I appreciate the work and frugality of using up all those scraps. I think what makes them look good is the variety and I don't have that. I am working on a Virginia Bound scrappy pattern from a workshop I took from Bonnie Hunter. It is strip piecing on paper -- not completely mindless. I suggest you look at Bonnie's You Tubes to see her crumb makings -- anything goes -- and to watch and listen to her -- she just dives right in with very little planning.
    Sharon has made some really cute crumb quilts.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Bonnie Hunter - Crumbs

  • geezerfolks_SharonG_FL
    10 years ago

    I probably should have a board on Pinterest of just the crumb quilts I've done. I have another one in mind I want to do, too. I like the concept of making houses....not so much the other fabric used.

    Love crumbs......

    SharonG/FL

  • rosajoe_gw
    10 years ago

    That is so pretty Sharon! I absolutely love scrappy Irish Chains so I cut 2 inch squares to use as beginners and enders.

    I also use 1 inch strips for Log Cabins. The problem with me and small scrappy pieces is the extra weight from all those seams.

    I admire Crazy Quilts, but I have tried one and lost interest really fast. Same with the postage stamp quilts, I admire everyone elses, but I know I will never make one.
    Rosa

  • geezerfolks_SharonG_FL
    10 years ago

    Rita, I have 3 crumb quilts on Pinterest you can look at and also one made with strips.

    Rosa, I haven't noticed any extra weight with the crumbs unless the pieces were extra tiny. Depends on the size of the crumbs.

    Bev2009, I like your idea of using a piece of yellow in each block...would that be a 'controlled' crumb? LOL

    Here is a link that might be useful: Quilts From Shazz

  • ritaweeda
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks, all. I'll have to check out that website on crumb quilts. I had always thought that crumbs were the really itsy bitsy bits but I guess I was wrong. I'll check it out but not today and probably not tomorrow. We picked 10 pounds of strawberries today and now I have to make jam - can't do it today, it's too late but tomorrow I'll be sweating in the kitchen over a boiling pot of jam and huge pots of steaming jars. Why did I do that??

  • nanajayne
    10 years ago

    This is a crumb quilt I made a few years ago. I treated it as a crazy quilt and added Family names on different blocks.
    Some of the pieces were very small.
    I just started sewing fabric together until I felt it was the size I had decided on and squared it into a block.
    Fun.

  • calliope
    10 years ago

    Depends on how tiny my scraps how I decide to recycle them into quilts. You can use all sorts of odds and ends if you pair them against one solid fabric to calm them down a bit. I keep twelve inch squares of thin fabric (could even be threadbare, tired sheet sets) and use them for foundation onto which to make flip and sew crazy blocks. If I have lots of scraps at least four to six inches across both ways, I sew up HSTs and leave them in a box like leaders and enders and they just magically one day become enough to make all sorts of patterns out of. Put them all against white in the hst to make them more versatile. If I have long strips, then log cabins. They............all...........get.......used and with a little forethought look as if you picked the fabric out on purpose.

  • quiltnhen
    10 years ago

    Wow, riaweeda, where are you. I need to make lemon curd and process it, but I've been babying the Meyer lemons for weeks. Strawberries in January?
    LindaB/CA

  • K8Orlando
    10 years ago

    I like finished scrappy quilts and admire people who can do them. I just can't. Too much of a control freak I guess. I become paralyzed trying to move fabrics around so they look good and balanced. Blood pressure shoots up, palms get sweaty, fabrics stack up on the cutting board... it's not fun for me.

  • mary_c_gw
    10 years ago

    Like most, I enjoy a lovely scrappy quilt.

    I have little success making them, though! They have to be a "controlled scrappy", or they just will not get made.

    So to reply to Rita - I can't "just do it". I will sort and sort and agonize over the placement of every single piece.

    I am doing a semi-scrappy type at the moment - but it only has about 12 fabrics, and one consistent background. It still has me in FITS!!

  • ritaweeda
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Linda B - I'm in Brooksville, FL, but this is the beginning of strawberry season all over Central FL. The place near us is charging 2 dollars a pound U-pick. We had to work harder to find them, people had already been in the field for 2 days picking and there had been some rain which ruined a lot of the ripened berries.
    Kate and Mary C - yes I understand because I am somewhat that way, too, I get frustrated and stressed quickly when it's not controlled, and that's why I was wondering if there is a way to do it stress-free.
    Calliope, when you make the log cabins - one of my favorites to make - do you use all the same width strips or different widths? I have a lot of different widths. I suppose I could do a foundation-pieced string quilt with those, I've made one before. The only thing I won't do is purposefully wonky blocks of any kind, that drives me nuts.

  • geezerfolks_SharonG_FL
    10 years ago

    Rita, If you have strips, there are a couple of good scrappy strip patterns at Bonnie's site. I made the String-X.

    There are a few other patterns too, but this is the only string I have done.

    Freezer jam is easier and, I think, tastes much fresher. I haven't made strawberry jam in a long time, but it is strawberry shortcake season. :-) I've never been to any of the Strawberry Festivals, have you?

    SharonG/FL

    Here is a link that might be useful: Bonnie's String-X pattern

  • littlehelen_gw
    10 years ago

    Great ideas...those scraps just continue to build...and build. I'm ok with trying another scrappy...yet like many it will be a controlled scrappy!
    Here's the one top I've done, still need to quilt it.
    V.

  • ritaweeda
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Sharon, many years ago we went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City and I wasn't impressed. I've never made the freezer jam. After I made it this morning to my absolute HORROR I saw that the sugar had burnt on the bottom of my fine Le Creuset stockpot until it was pure, stone-hard black. (This had never happened before.) But I searched online and found a way to fix it. I was so relieved. If it ever happens to you put some water in the pot, get it to the boil, then add baking soda to it, let it boil for about 5 minutes, then turn it down and use a non-scratching hard spoon and scrape it and it eventually comes off. You do have to keep scraping, though. Then I rinsed it out and put fresh water in it and some white vinegar in it and boiled it again and it came out nearly new again.

  • msmeow
    10 years ago

    Sharon & Rita, we've never been impressed with the Strawberry Festival, either. Kinda shabby. :)

  • K8Orlando
    10 years ago

    Went to the Strawberry Festival once in the '80s and had fun. Went back in the late '90s and thought it was as Donna describes: kinda shabby and a little depressing. Shortcake was good though!

    Val - that scrappy quilt with all the white around the squares is really nice. And it has great space for quilting too!

  • pirate_girl
    10 years ago

    Hi,

    I took part in some of the Crumb discussions several yrs. ago & enjoyed them. Interestingly, I just recently I took it out to finish it up, I'm liking it a lot.

    Just sewed scrap blocks together, trimmed down to 4.5" blocks, then put them together w/ sashing.

    I liked the freedom of using colored related scraps (in my case) & assembly w/out a plan, other which fabrics I thought went well together best at that moment -- good fun!

    I'd recently posted it at another thread, asking To Border or Not to Border.

    Only thinking I needed here was the sashing & the border.

  • geezerfolks_SharonG_FL
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the info on the Strawberry Festival. I think I'd just like to try all the various things they make with strawberries. :-) I usually get some to freeze for smoothies and shortcake. Are they as sweet this year as they were last year? Last years crop was really good.

    I just noticed the quilt picture I posted isn't the same as the pattern link. I'm such a doofuss! I did make the String-X or am making it....I don't remember if it's big enough or not.

    Thank you for posting pictures of your scrappies. I like seeing what you all do with scraps.

    SharonG/FL

  • toolgranny
    10 years ago

    I'm a big Bonnie Hunter fan but I just can't make myself do scrappy. I'm too controlled I guess. I can make a pile of scraps with fabrics that coordinate but just seem scrappy-challenged. Oh well. I do other things and will leave the lovely scrappy things to Sharon.