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Scrappy to me has no rhyme or reason, unless a controlled scrappy.
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I have accepted the fact that I can only do controlled scrappy. You are so right that some people can go totally scrappy and have it turn out great. Take a look at Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilts on her www.quiltville.blogspot.com under the free pattern tab. Her quilts give you units to make scrappy and then they make a pattern. I did her Basket-weave-strings and I was pleased with it.
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I am not there totally ... yet. I still break down my fabrics into lights, darks, & ?mediums.
Maybe one day ... ??? |
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Wow! TG&Y, and Kreskee's (not spelled right)! That's putting me in a different place. Thank you for giving me something better to think about as I clean a real mess this morning.
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I agree with the previous posters: "scrappy" covers a wide range of territory. I call the "throw everything together" a "kitchen sink scrappy" and in my opinion Postage Stamp or String Quilts are perfect examples. Or you can go more controlled. One method I have found very effective is the monochromatic scrappy, where I use just one main color, expressed with many different fabrics. My "Green" quilt is an example of this.
Another technique is to take a regular pattern but substitute certain parts of the pattern with scraps. Bonnie Hunter is a master of this; many of her quilts utilize this technique. I have a wall hanging where the flowers are single colors but the background is a collage of squares and rectangles of every cream and beige I had at the time. My machine quilter really brought the quilt alive by quilting dragonflies, bees and butterflies in amongst the flowers and it's one of my favorite quilts to this day. |
I love scrappy, but I can't just throw fabric together either. I'm better than I was, but I like some harmony. I think value is super important and some peoples failure is the fact that they can't seem to find that value balance. That said, more colors seem to go together than what I would have thought before my really scrappy days. Like reds and pinks just sort of blend as a value, and purple is a neutral to a certain extent - I have several of the eggplant purples and they go with most everything.
I do my scraps in tubs of strip sizes. I have a 1 1/2" tub one in med/darks and another in lights - I love my neutrals - a 2" tub of lights that is shared with my 2 1/2" light strips, my 1 1/2" strip med/darks is huge and over flowing. When I decided to go scrappy I'd buy 1 yd of different colors and patterns - no reason, I just had to like it. Then cut a strip of 1 1/2", 2", and 2 1/2" strips from it and fold away the left overs for bigger block parts. It was an ideal situation for me. What I had was stuff from Joann's and lesser quality and I used to wash before sewing. Now I just do qsq and don't wash. I thought it better to start with really good stuff and all treated the same. My first scrappies were log cabins and I think that pattern is a great teacher for scrappy and value uses. You just eed to cut lose and have fun. |
When I do scrappy I will divide the dark from the light....they then go into their own bags.... I pull from the bag and that is what I use
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Don't be silly controlled or not they are all beautiful. somtimes I just throw them in a bag, pull out whatever and make myself use it, They too are beautiful. Also if you use one color throughout it will tie it all together. Have fun with it. Enjoy the process.
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i LOVE scrappy quilts... but i organize my scraps to light and dark and medium if i can't decide. that way, if the pattern relies on light spaces and dark spaces, i can choose from the right bin.
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