A Rainbow Scrappy Baby Quilt

38" x 38"

This is the third quilt in my Summer of Scraps Series. It was inspired by this quilt called Potluck. I used 2.5" squares instead of the 3.5" she used in her to make mine a baby size quilt. I went through my scraps and found that I had a pink, orange, and aqua fabric that was left over from a quilt. I had cut the leftovers into 2.5" squares because I didn't like the fabric and as you may know if you cut any fabric small enough it can become lovely.

I also found some striped squares that had similar colors on it so those two fabrics became the color scheme for the quilt. It is such a fun color scheme! Reminds me of fruit salad or the beach for some reason. Maybe because it's so hot here!

Sticking with the "use what you got" theme this summer, the only fabric I could find that looked good, was this aqua cross hatch. Not that I am complaining because I think it looks great. I tried all sorts of colors for the binding, but in the end nothing looked as nice as this dark aqua and it was in my 2.5" strip bin. So it was a bonus use of scraps. 

It's been so fun using my scraps this summer and I don't see an end to them yet (maybe they are multiplying when I'm out of the room). I've got four more quilts in some stage of progress. So until next time - here's to using those scraps!

Josie's Second Quilt

81" x 94"

My daughter is 10 and she likes to make things. She has been pestering me about making another quilt for a while so several months ago we took some time and narrowed down an easy pattern for her to make a quilt for her bed. She picked out all the pinks and purples from my stash that she liked. And she picked a lot!

This was an easy pattern for her since there were no seams to match up. Her attention span isn't too long so she would only sew a row or two at a time and there would sometimes be days (lots of days) between sewing. She got disappointed when she would have to seem rip, but that only happened on a couple rows. It laid very flat on the longarm when I was quilting it. 

I made her a quilt in 2013 that was also pink and purple, but I think I like this one better. Emma is asking for a quilt. She picked out some bright and happy colors. Now we just need to find the perfect pattern. She is going to be 7 so I will be sewing this first one. But first the scrap quilts need to be finished!

Summer of Scraps - One Color

Part 1 - Organizing Your Scraps

Part 2 - Controlled Scrappy Quilt

Part 3 - Today I've got a one color quilt for you. This quilt is inspired by this quilt here. Alternating the aqua with the white gives this quilt a "winter and ice" kinda feel. Too bad it can't cool the temperature down here - it's hot! I tried Myra's magnet to the garage door method to hold up the quilt. I only had 4 magnets and 3 didn't keep it from sliding down the door so I didn't have enough to tack the bottom down. But overall it worked! I wish they weren't black. I may have to invest in some silver ones.

Aqua is one of my favorite colors. I use it a lot in my quilts so I had a nice selection of scraps in this color. I used 2.5" strips first and then 5" squares trimmed to 2.5". This is how many it took to make the quilt. I used almost all of it.

I cut my background strips in half so that I could get more variation on my strip sets. When the aqua strip was too short I added one of those 5" long pieces to utilize the whole white strip.

Once the strip sets are sewn and ironed, you just cut them into 2.5" segments. Then mix them up and sew 4 of them into a block.

Our Joann's store is lacking in fabric at the moment so I was forced to make due with what I had on hand. It took me a while as I didn't have any pieces wide enough. I started with just the blue pieces, but it was looking a bit old fashioned. Once I added the white strips it seemed to make it more modern and match the front a bit more. 

Here are a few of my favorite one color quilts from Pinterest that I found. Does it surprise you that they are all aqua? You could use your 2.5" strips, or squares to make these or even a 1.5" strip on this first one.

Dart Quilt by Scrapmaster01 pattern by Amy Ellis

Layer Cake Coin Pattern

Aqua Lovers by Southern Belle Designs

Aqua Strips by mustlovequilts

I bet you're wondering where the rainbow quilts are...they are coming!  I've been slowly sewing my 99 blocks together. I'm also working on a baby quilt. Hard to have just one project in the works.  I hope you are having fun working through your scraps this summer!

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation

Summer of Scraps - Controlled Scrappy

Part 1 - Organizing Your Scraps

Part 2 - is all about the Controlled Scrappy Quilt. It is one with just a few colors and has some sense of order or symmetry made with a background fabric.

First quilt up in the Controlled Scrappy category is this beautiful quilt I just finished. The pattern is Floor Plan by Kristi Daum. I chose this one because the background give it great structure and I new it would look good in just 3 colors. It uses 2.5" squares and strips so I knew I would have enough scraps to get it finished.

58" x 74"

Bonus for this quilt - The whole top is pieced with scraps from by bin of Kona Snow. I was able to use most of the larger pieces and strips that were needing to be cut.  Now I just have to cut the rest of the snow into 2.5" squares.

Here are a few more controlled scrappy quilts I have made in the past. They each have a background fabric or borders that give them some sense of order. And they each have 3 or 4 colors of fabrics. 

Mini Charm Chocolates - Free pattern (2.5" squares)

Scrappy Patchwork (5" squares)

Black and Yellow Scraps (2.5" and 4.5" squares)

Scrappy 16 Patch (2.5" squares)

My Lucky Square (2.5" squares)

You can head on over to my scrappy pinterest board for even more great inspiration. What kind of scrappy quilt are you making this summer? 

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation

Summer of Scraps Part 1 - Organization

Summer has officially started here in the south and it's hot! I have been thinking a lot about my scraps and the fact that even though I have made 2 scrappy quilts this year already, it just isn't making a dent in my bins. So I thought I would do a scrappy summer of making quilts. It will be fun and it will use what I have! Less money out the door is a good thing.  (I'm not going to count quilt backs, but I will make every effort to either use my large pieces or piece a back together.)

I plan on sharing what I'm making along with some ideas for using up different kinds of scraps. Some ideas floating in my head include using rainbow scraps, one color themed scraps, just a few colors scraps, scrappy backgrounds, strings, ugly fabrics, and solid scraps. We'll see how it goes! I have a couple scrappy quilts started and several more planned out, plus I will be sharing ones I've made in the past. I hope to inspire you to dig into your scraps and use them up this summer!

I thought I would start this series with how I cut and organize my scraps. I keep all my scrappy prints in these art bins from Joanns. I have 10 of them stored under my ironing board, and I just love them. I keep 3 sizes because that is what I like to use. You could do more if you were so inclined. All of my scraps are organized by color. I cut 5" and 2.5" strips first. Anything smaller than that goes in the string bin.

I have 2 bins of 2.5" squares. This one is probably my most used. I like to find quilt patterns that use these little squares and pair it with a background (or not) and make some order out of it. I just recently made the scrap snap quilt completely out of rainbow scraps.

(red, orange, yellow, and green)

 (pink, purple, and blues)

(brown, gray, black, white, and any multicolored fabric)

I have 3 bins of 2.5" strips. To be put in this bin the strips must be at least 13" long. If there is less than 3 or 4 inches of fabric left when I'm cutting fabric for a quilt, I will just cut the scrap to 2.5" strip and put it in these bins. It's very handy to have a 2.5" strip when making a jelly roll quilt pattern and you just need a couple more strips. 

(red, orange and green)

 (pink, purple, multi, and yellow)

(all shades of blue) 

(black, gray, brown, and beige)

The last size I keep is 5" squares. These are so handy because you can use them as is or you can cut them into 4 - 2.5" squares. They can also be trimmed into 2- 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles without wasting too much fabric. I bet you can guess by the 5" square what my favorite and most used color is!

Next week I will be sharing a quit I'm making with red, orange, and aqua scraps if time allows. I'm hoping to get a couple quilts done every month, but sometimes my plans are bigger than what my time allows! This one is going together quickly though. Plus I plan on sharing some great quilts I found on Pinterest to get you inspired. The "controlled" scrappy quilt is one that only has a few colors and has some background that brings order to the quilt. 

You are more than welcome to join me this summer and get your scraps under control and make some beautiful quilts at the same time! If you're on Instagram I'm using #summerofscraps. You can also tag me at #theflemingsnine with your scrappy quilts. I'd love to see them!