Crumbs and Scraps

What do you do with little pieces of fabric?

Some years ago I took my scrap box and played. I did a series of small quilts I called Crumb Quilts. I don't have pics of all that I made, but here are several:

I sewed scraps together and then trimmed them into rectangles or squares. Then I sewed the 'blocks' of scraps together. The deep border creates a frame that contains the crazy scraps, and offers a restful place for the eye. The quilts ranged from 12" to 16" in size.

The center quilt was made of 1 1/2" fabric samples.

The last quilt has a vintage fabric with mice running in a line so I appliquéd a cat and used a cityscape border. I call it Manhattan Melodrama!

 

Scraps have always been used in Patchwork. Like this 1960s era Grandmother's Flower Garden I shared last year.

 



 Or the one-patch quilt I wrote about several years ago.

And the Double Wedding Ring quilt I rescued a few months ago. I use my feedsack and vintage scraps to repair it, appliqueing over the worn patches.

And last year's East Side Detroit quilt I found at the flea market.

My mother-in-law developed 'Arthur-ritis' in her thumb and had to curtail her quilting. She wanted to use up her scraps. A favorite pattern was Aunt Suki's Choice. Each block has a four-patch unit of scraps.

 



A few years ago I started cutting my scraps into squares. I have squares of all sizes, from 1" to 20". I pull out these scraps for use in projects like Love Entwined. The background fabric was newly bought. Every other fabric is from my stash, yardage, fat quarters, and various sized squares.

I also have a small box of scraps with fusible backing, one of vintage fabric scraps, and a box of shirting fabrics. Another box has triangles, and one more applique shapes that were not used.

And they are all moving with me!

What do you do with your scraps?