Originally Posted by
Charming
I am in the same boat as you are. I love looking at all the beautiful scrappy quilts, but every time I try I feel so tense and can't breathe...lol.......................and I go back to a different pattern :-)
I am thinking to try at least semi-scrappy with bunch of different fabrics, but same color tone, to make it easier. You might want to give that a try.
The best lesson I had in scrappiness was from the book, "Color from the Heart" by Gai Perry. One of the projects was to cut 100 2" squares, put them in a bag, then pull them out one at a time and lay them out to make a postage stamp block. What was helpful was that you were allowed to move a few pieces, if it helped the layout. And – if the whole thing left you cold, you could put the squares back in the bag and start over.
What I learned was that some fabrics looked better together than I ever would have thought. I learned that moving one or two squares could make a difference, but it wasn't necessary to micromanage each square. And I did end up tossing the squares back in the bag and starting over once – the second time things looked much better. Best of all, it was no stress. It was just one little project. It really helped me let go (to a degree) of the need for controlled scrappiness. I ended up making a pillow out of the block.
It was a fun project, I highly recommend it!