I seem to have a little left over from several quilts, but not enough of any one kind to make a scrap quilt. Maybe I need to continue collecting.

So many possiblities of colors, print size, lights, darks, loud, quite, I sort and sort and sort. Sometimes, I have so much fun looking at, feeling, and sorting my scraps that I don't get down to the bussiness of making a quilt.

boy..I guess you got all the answers already! it truly does depend on A-the quilt you wish to make, B- the person making the quilt, C- what sort of scraps you have

I love your method Lori! I may have to borrow it for my next scrap quilt.:)

I like scrappy quilts and anything goes as long as it is cotton. I'm working on one now with triangles and there are many, many colors, from lighter fabrics to the white background. I just grab a piece and put it down but it is sort of controlled as I hate to have two many of one color in a spot. Have made 3 different scrap so far and love them all. They go nicely in any room in my house. Oh, I have planned color ones and patterns that only needed 3 or 4 fabrics but what else do you do when you have bins of fabric? I will have to sell a lot of it as I will never use it all, not even the feed sacks. It is all a matter of what you are doing and when I make a scrap quilt I do have a layout in mind which sometimes is changed when I start laying the scraps out.

I didn't intend to make a scrappy quilt, but this is how it happened. I was going to make a blue jeans quilt, and I had plenty of material from light blue through dark blue denim and intended to make square patches. Boring! So I dug through my stash and found two different designs of leftover upholstery fabric (had intended to make bags), one in a pretty blue floral pattern, and one in a pretty pink floral pattern, which of course went great with denim. But I still didn't want just "squares". So I started dumping out my scraps and thinking. Suddenly it hit me. I'd make snowballs of the squares, cut off the corners, put plain triangles on the floral upholstery fabric corners, and print triangles on the denim snowball corners. But it was still boring, to me. So then I really dug down into my scraps, and started pulling out colors and prints, (but no black or white) and by the time it was all over, all of my "snowballs" were sashed with 2 inches of totally scrappy colored sashing, put together in no particular order or shape, just sewed together any which way and then cut into 2½ strips for the sashes, and wide enough to made a double folded 1" border. I used a thin batting, such as you might use for placemats, because the denim and upholstery fabrics were so heavy, and used "Starry, Starry Night" with it's varied blues and lots of bright stars for a backing. I did have it professionally quilted, because it was just too thick for me to handle, and she did a beautiful job with all the different fabrics. Each denim has a floral pattern you can see, that mimics the florals on the upholstery fabric. She "feathered" the sashing, which really looks great on both front and back, because on the back what you see are florals enclosed by a feathered lattice, with the stars still shining brightly through. It's gorgeous, and I have one very, very happy niece who had been begging me to make her a Blue Jeans Quilt, and was quite stunned and happy with the results. (This was one of my kids who didn't want anything "quilted" because it was "Old Fashioned" until she discovered Blue Jeans Quilts, and suddenly I was getting begging e-mails and texts!) She proudly tells me that No One in her group has anything like her quilt, they got all their quilts from Penny's, and they're pea green with envy. I told her to tell them she had her quilt "privately commissioned". And she did! What a funny kid! One minute I'm "Old Fashioned", and then suddenly I'm "awesome". And yes, I know I'm going to have to wait until she's in her 20's before we're "friends" again. That's the way it works. Until then, I'll go in and out of style.

The point is, sometimes these scrappy quilts come together totally through serendipity!

"The point is, sometimes these scrappy quilts come together totally through serendipity!" MacThayer, I loved your story!
I agree with what everyone wrote. As for me, I've discovered I like "controlled scrappy".

Check out Bonnie Hunter's site at www.quiltville.com She is famous for her scrappy quilts. She has several free patterns you can use to help you. I have made several of her quilts using my scraps and they are beautiful......

MacThayer -I loved reading the story of you quilt. I guess I need to build more confidence to do what feels and looks right to me. Thanks for you replay.

A someone once atold me that there not such a thing as an ugly scrappy quilt. It is because your eye goes every direction and never lights in one place so nothing is ugly. I usually don't sort. You definitely Ned both lights and darks.