Scraps

Seriously, where did all this come from? Yesterday I was cleaning up the studio and decided it was time to tackle the mound of scraps left over from countless projects I have worked on during the past couple of years. These piles include everything left over that is less than a fat quarter in size. Astounding, don’t you think? No piece is big enough to make anything by itself, and nothing really seems to coordinate with anything else. Still, it’s all too good to just toss, right?

Then I started thinking about that neat old quilt that Mark had when I met him. He thought his grandmother made it, but his Aunt claims to have never seen it before. That is another mystery that will never be solved, but probably beside the point.

The point is, someone made this really neat quilt and except for the large blue blocks and all the white contrasting fabric, you would be hard pressed to find two triangles that are remotely “coordinated”. Of course this old beauty is all hand pieced and quilted, which is much more effort than I'm up for. However it did set me to wondering if I couldn’t get away with a design that is even more scrappy than this. Something that uses up all of my scraps without cutting into any of the “good” stash.

This is the design I came up with.

Every one of those green triangles will be a different print, and the light triangles will be an assortment of whites, ivories and creams. Hopefully I have enough light scraps, but I will probably need to dip into the stash for some larger pieces. And, of course, I’ll need to back it with something – perhaps just good quality but inexpensive muslin. I guess I’m going to be cutting and stitching for awhile. The smallest blocks are 2 x 2 finished and I need to may 854 of those puppies. I’ll keep you posted on my progress as the pile shrinks.

But whatever will I do if I still have scraps left over? Well there is always this doll quilt that the neighbor lady made for me when I was six...