Last year my daughter came home from college for Christmas,and while driving the 3 hour drive, she mentioned she wanted to make a quilt for the boyfriend with a wolf panel in the center and whatever around it. She just didn't tell me right away that he was going to visit us for New Year and we only had one and a half week to put together a full size quilt. I had the panel, she went through the already cut scraps to select only masculin patterns and colors, and yada, tada, yada, I finished binding the quilt the same day he arrived. If those scraps were not already cut and ready to go, we would not have finished on time.
Since them I have made two "emergency" quilts, if that qualifies as an emergency, one with half square triangles made form the squares already there and one with full squares.
Maria