Yes, a scrappy quilt is a type of quilt. You can use either scraps or lots of purposefully chosen fabrics to make this quilt. The clean out the fridge kind will likely be more random and the one with purposefully chosen fabrics might have a tendency to be more planned, but they are both scrap quilts.

Historically a "scrap quilt" was made with leftovers from anything that the homemaker had made using fabric; clothes, curtains, bed sheets, blankets etc. Back then fabric was not bought specifically to make a quilt. Today a "scrap quilt " is a quilt made with leftover fabric from other projects, nothing is bought for this quilt, use what you have. A scrappy quilt is a quilt made using many fabrics that have been bought specifically for a scrappy look. A scrap quilt and a scrappy quilt are two different quilts entirely. MHO

You said what I was trying to say! :)

Clean out the scrap bin and throw caution to the wind.

I will use leftover fabrics from previous quilts. Then use from stash for sashes, borders and binding.
I consider that a scrappy quilt.
My quilts my terms.

For me it is definitely using left over fabric from past projects. Anything goes in what I call my "littles" quilts. I just don't think of fabric bits as scrap but I do use the term for understanding in the general sense of what kind of quilt any particular one is.

peace

I don't know. I figured any quilt that calls for all the fabrics in a Jelly Roll, for instance, would be considered scrappy. Or not. I have no idea. I used to think anything that wasn't pretty much "all the same for each block" would be considered scrappy. But now I have no idea and just make up the fabrics I have without worrying too much about what they are called.

Almost all of my quilts are made from many different fabrics. I refer to them as either scrappy (when I use just about anything) or Controlled Scrappy(when I select certain color groups.)

I call mine leftovers. I make string blocks with them and put them together with sashing that matches the predominant color in the blocks. It seems that when they are sewn together, all sorts of crazy colors look pretty good. I am in the process of trying to use all leftovers and not buy new fabric. Except, the wonderful quilt shop in our town is closing for good......so I have had to buy a bunch.

my scrappies are of the 'frige' variety