No one has mentioned this thread so I'll throw it out here. It's a long-running thread of scrap quilts. Maybe seeing a lot of them will help you decide what you like best about them.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...e-t135936.html

BTW my favorite scrappies are the Everything-including-the-kitchen-sink kind.

My scraps all tend to be earth tones. I recently made a scrappie and was a little worried that the few brights I included would look out of place. When I got it all out together it was the brights that made it sparkle. Going outside your comfort zone can be a good thing. At the very least you'll learn what you don't like.

Whether it's a scrappy quilt, bag or table runner, the scrappy look to me has something that unifies it: a single background fabric or maybe a consistent color scheme (like blue & white) or an overall theme (maybe Kaffe or Civil War). Also, try to include as many different fabrics as possible and scatter pieces of the same fabric throughout the project instead of having them close to each other.

I'm an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of girl! Only thing the scrap has to be cotton (with an occasional cotton/polyester blend that just sneaks under the presser foot from the scrap bag/box/bin.)

Oh heck, I even "include the kitchen sink":)

I have not made a scrap quilt yet but sure have the resources to do so! But, when I look at a scrappy, it seems the ones that I like best have some red or bright colors scattered among the other pieces. Makes it zing, I suppose??

I just pull from my scrap drawer and sew either in strips or maybe a pattern. No sorting and they always turn out great. Just using up material I paid for and not throwing it away. Tiny left overs or really odd pieces go in the pillow case for a doggie bed.

Another way is to hold it all together with the same color sashing. Sometimes I start with the same color in the center of each block, work around that and then use that center color for the sashing. My corner stones were scrappy, too. On one of mine, each 2 inch corner-stone was pieced with from 3 to 11 different fabrics.

Oh thanks to everyone so much! In looking over the scraps now in a pile ready to be assembled, I believe the issue now is "value"...over half are medium tones and the remaining are darks with a handful of lights. I may have to search a little deeper for some lights. I would love to post a pic of this when done because I've used every tip from each person here --so its got to be photo worthy!

I like scrappies with white as a constant. That said, I have a lot of blue scraps and many greens, fewer of reds, yellows, oranges, pinks, purples...so I think my scrappy quilts have an overall blue and /or green effect with white background.

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