Blue Scraps Quilt

Scrappy Blue

This quilt was made with a baby in mind. I planned to make it completely from scrap fabrics from other projects and to use all sorts of colors and patterns that would be a visual treat for a little one who was just learning to recognize colors and patterns. The actual design of the blocks was guided by the pieces of blue fabric left over from my nephew's quilt. These were the insides to a Drunkard's Path block and I could easily cut off the curves to make triangles. Using the blue triangles and some white square centers, I made a Churndash block. The consistent blue and white gave structure to the block and then I was free to fill in the rest of the block with eight different fabrics. For these, I used scraps from my stash, both my sisters' stashes, and my mom's stash. There are fabrics from numerous projects over the years.

Innards from previously cut Drunkard's Path blocks

I cut the largest triangles I could from the quarter circle pieces and sized the new blocks this way

The piecing went along well until I was about three quarters of the way through. 

Very few repeated fabrics

At this point I decided the quilt was too small, and I needed to put another row of blocks on the top so that there would be 25 white squares total. I had used up all of the blue quarter circle pieces, but there was one piece of uncut blue left over and I planned to just go as far as I could with it.

Too small for a finished size

Last bit of blue fabric

The finished size ended up 29 inches square.

Some repeats in fabrics, but such a variety overall

Pieced, ready to baste

Quilt was small enough to baste on my dining room table

For the quilting I had the Bernina 830 set up on the dining room table and mom helped me decide on a design that would go relatively quickly on the machine. I didn't use the walking foot this time as there were some curved edges. The walking foot and I don't cooperate very well when sewing curves, but I am not yet confident enough to freehand the curves with the darning foot.

Sketching out possible quilting designs

Ah yes, more help

Binding already cut, leftover from another project

Happily, there was a suitable binding waiting in the scrap stash, so the only non-scrap or leftover fabric in the whole quilt is the white cotton used for the 25 squares and for the backing. After the binding was attached and the quilt was washed, I took pictures in my garden.

So many bright fabrics for a baby

Quilting from back

Ready to meet baby