Using scraps
 

When making a scrappy quilt do you just sew the colors randomly or is it controlled color? It seems if I do it randomly it does not look that great. My sons laughs at me and says look why did you use this color there it looks bad.
Janet H

I am more of a controlled scrappy quilter. I also like to add some muslin or solids as sashing or within the prints to keep it less busy.

I do better with controlled scrappy. Easier for me to do than just mixing everything together. :)

I prefer a controlled scrappy too. There were several times on "Simply Quilts" when a guest quilter would put the scraps in a paper bag, then pull out one piece at a time, and no matter what came out they used. When I tried it I got similar colors together and it was just bad, so ended up taking the pieces apart. Maybe if you separate the colors, then put the separate colors in separate bags and then pull them out from there. The other way just did not work for me.

I too am a controlled quilter. I need to know where each fabric is going to lay. Right now I am working on a scrappy tube pieced quilt. I made 5 blocks using four jelly roll strips + background making a total of 50 blocks. So I put one block from each strip in a pile. I have laid 20 blocks on the design wall and getting ready to trim up another 10 blocks. I need the accent colors to be nicely scatter across the quilt.

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My sons laughs at me and says look why did you use this color there it looks bad.

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I would tell the sons they have boring color sense.
It's easy to make scrappy quilts random if you use one control color for part of the block in each block. It doesn't matter if black is next to brown or red is next to lime green. Look at Bonnie Hunter's quilts all are scrappy some controlled some random.

A controlled scrappy here as well!!!!

I just grab and sew. Yes, I do sometimes see better choices after the quilt is done, but, oh well. I've tried being more organized, but it drove me nuts.

I'm totally controlled. My scraps bin are growing because of that :-) I have found some pattern that I like to work with scraps. They have in common of using scraps to create specific shapes (boat, feather, fox). This way, I feel there is some harmony. Low volume fabrics are nice too to create controlled scrappy. I have found also that I can use more mismatched fabric and colors if my square are little (2,5 or 3,5 inches). But it's a matter of personal taste.