I agree with your thoughts completely. We spend a lot of money on material and thread and make quilts because we love creating.

I regard 'scrappy' as one of the highest points of artistry in quilt making. There is the form in which pieces of fabric are joined into a very random fashion. Some are eye pleasing to me-others are not. Then, there are those in which the maker has placed colors of miscellaneous fabric in a very orderly fashion. I think of Judy Martin and Sally Schneider in this contest and I love their work. And, of course, we all know about Bonnie Hunter. Using fabric you have is not the issue, it is seeing its beauty as it is joined in groups of fabrics that just play together well. I have lots of scraps-all separated by color into plastic bags and I want to make a quilt with them; but, I don't have confidence-yet.

Some uninformed quilters/people think scrappy quilts mean crappy quilts but we who make and love them call them Happy Scrappy quilts. When I first began quilting I wondered how anyone could have enough different fabrics to make a scrappy quilt - have to laugh because now, 15 years later i can make several king size scrappy quilts in different colors right from my stash.

We could call them 'Quilts of many colors'

I simply love this board!

Personally, I tend to think that it isn't that terms such as "scrappy" that lead folks to devalue our work. It is the fact that quilting falls in the category of "arts and crafts" to begin with that begs for our work to be devalued. "Arts and Crafts" brings to my mind summer camp sessions and Popsicle creations. So many artforms and techniques fall into this lowly category that truly are not "crafts." But how many times has someone said to you, "Oh, I'm not crafty like you."

I love these definitions. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

"Scrappy" doesn't bother me; it's just a term for a kind of quilt. That it's using up what's left over in a great way -- and sometimes that leftover fabric is quite expensive -- doesn't indicate to me that it's cheap or a throwaway. Some scrappy quilts are quite intricately patterned.

I call mine abstract quilts. That takes away from "scrappy" and makes one wonder what it is.

For me, a fairly new quilter, the fact that you have enough 'scraps' to make a full quilt is a badge of honor. It shows that your are an experienced quilter, that has the skills to take a bunch of little piece and turn it into a work of art.