Sensational Quilts for Scrap Lovers: 11 Easily Pieced Projects; Color & Cutting Strategies by Judy Gauthier

Seeing the vibrant quilt on the cover, I couldn't resist looking into Sensational Quilts for Scrap Lovers. The author and designer Judy Gauthier writes, "Playing with my fabric scraps is my all-time favorite sport," and she can't stay away from devising new ways to use them. 

Gauthier shares tips for creating and storing your scraps, including odd shapes and scraps with bias edges. She offers advice on storing scraps by color. A brief course on color theory helps you decide on scrap selection for your project, including how to transition colors.

Along with her basic go-to Keystone block, Gauthier includes instructions on piecing curves.

I was pleased to learn that Gauthier stores her scraps in 3 1/2", 4 1/2" and 5 1/2" squares. I have been doing that for years! I store mine by size in baggies in a shoe storage tower similar to the one pictured below. (I have a second one filled with fat quarters!)

The eleven quilt projects include:

• Frontal Boundaries, which uses 4" blocks to make a 68 1/2" x 97" quilt. Gauthier transitions color to flow across the quilt. Detailed instructions ensure you can recreate your own version.

Frontal Boundaries

• True North's color transition starts in the center and extends outward. The two blocks offer an impression of a compass. The 8" blocks finish to make a 91" x 91" quilt.
• Argyle Sweater uses 8" blocks to make a 74" by 85 1/2" quilt. It was made with scraps left from True North. The overlapping on-point squares against a solid background recall the classic sweater design.

Argyle Sweater

• Split Screens' 16" blocks finish to a 48 1/2" x 64 1/2" quilt. It uses her Keystone block with a dark neutral allowing the colors to pop.

• Precious Metals, 60 1/2" x 70 1/2", is made of 5" x 10" blocks. The bias edges must be handled with care, but it's worth it for the affect. Gauthier's quilt of gold colored blocks interspersed with colored bars is stunning.
• Sleepy Tiny Tepee Town, 62 1/2" x 78", is made of blocks that look like camping tents or teepees. The bias edges need to be handled carefully, but the construction is quite easy.
• The Knit Stitch is composed of 10" x 5" blocks, 60 blocks creating a 50 1/2" x 60 1/2" quilt. Gauthier says the pattern leaves little waste. It could make a lovely gift for a knitter friend!
• Fractured Four-Patch is made of a four-patch triangle and finishes to 78 1/2" x 93". It is one of my favorites in the book, very scrappy, with value contrasts creating lots of movement. 

Fractured Four-Patch

• Circle gets the Square is made with 21" square blocks, nine making a 63 1/2" square quilt. Pieced low-contrast backgrounds made of squares are set with centered circle blocks. The piecing technique is for advanced sewers...but frankly, I would applique the circle!
• Aerial View finishes to 58" x 70 1/2", using 100 5 3/4" x 7" blocks. It is the color and value placement that recreates a feeling of fields from an airplane. It is a very Modern quilt.
• Sunrise, Sunset is the cover quilt and finishes to 77" x 80 1/2". It is constructed of half-hexagons set together with an appliqued central circle.

Learn more about Judy Gauthier at her websites

https://studioefabrics.net/judy-gauthier-1/

https://www.bungalowquilting.com/

Gauthier is a nurse and offers a tutorial for the mask pattern sold at her shop

https://www.bungalowquilting.com/tutorials/home-made-ppe/

I was given a free ebook by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Sensational Quilts for Scrap Lovers: 11 Easily Pieced Projects; Color & Cutting Strategies
by Judy Gauthier
C&T Publishing
Book $27.95; eBook $22.99
ISBN 9781617458682
eISBN 9781617458699

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?