Hi everyone, I have been quilting for a few years and have acquired a decent stash. Much of it is fat quarters with some bigger amounts thrown in but not much larger than 1 1/4 yards. Now how do I use this material in a quilt. Most of the directions I see say a yd of this or 13 fq's of that. I just would like a scrappy quilt that looks good. Also do I have to use the material in the border in the quilt itself? Thanks

There are tons of great fat quarter quilt patterns out there. I have used several of them. I like to put as many fabrics into a quilt I can which gives it somewhat of a scrappy look. I have used matching fabrics in borders as well as contrasting fabrics that were not in the quilt. Many of the patterns that call for fat quarters can also be cut from yardage. If I have say, a piece of 1&1/4 yards I'll cut the block pieces from the 1/4 yardage if possible than I have a yard left to use in borders or binding. Other times if I have a half yard piece I will turn it into 2 fat quarters for 2 different quilts.

Another option for backing if you don't have any large pieces for the backing of a quilt is to just piece together enough of the fat quarters to make a piece large enough for the back and you will have an interesting back as well.

Look at the patterns you like - they will naturally fall into light/dark values. If you sort your fabric by the same values, you should be fine. There are quite a few scrappy quilt sites, and look through the pictures section here to see some fab-u-lous examples!

Make scrappy BOM like the ones here on the board. Use one color for background and then make the rest of the block scrappy.
Here is a link for scrappy quilts
http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projec...jects_ss1.html
make the blocks first andthen the border and backing can come next. Scrappy is scrappy!!!!! :D

Here is a link for one that several of us here on the board have done. There are also a lot of other scrap quilt patterns listed on the right.
http://quiltville.com/striptwist.shtml

Thank you all so very much

suppose you see a pattern you like that isn't designed especially for fat quarters.

let's say it calls for one yard of fabric A. instead of buying a whole yard of something, pick four fat quarters of the same color. different prints, could be different shades, but same value. different but similar.

do that for all the fabrics in the quilt.

then cut your pieces from the fat quarters as though it was yardage.

clear as mud?

Scrap quilting information
http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpa...uilts.htm?nl=1

this website has block patterns
http://www.quilterscache.com/

This web site has lots of patterns that would work with FQ's. check it out.

http://www.sewquilty.com/History/page3.html