What to do with lots of different fabric?
 

I haven't been making quilt tops, because I don't like the "fussiness" and perfection required for it. However, I have accumulated LOTS of cotton stash anyway. Some scraps are quite large, and others are not. I found a quilt top that I did years ago and had forgotten about, and it inspired me to maybe try again. The thing is, the scraps that I have don't go together. I mean, there is homespuns, zebra strips, flowers, fish, solids, stripes, skulls... just about anything you can imagine!! I don't want my next attempt to be a total mess. So should I just wait until I have even more scraps to play with?

You could visit www.quiltville.com and read about Bonnie Hunter's system of taming her scraps and stash. She specializes in scrap quilt designs and has a very systematic approach to separating colors and cutting scraps for future use. After attending one of her lectures recently I've gotten hooked on reading her blog every day.

I know that the quilt police will say only use cotton but, I have used what I have all my life and it works for me. I just had to piece a back together and used a piece of polycotton in it, When my grandma taught me to quilt we used whatever we had and mixed it all the time. Some of those quilts are still around.

I would do a string quilt because the variety of strips makes the pattern look great. Here is a link to some beautiful examples in our Quilt Gallery http://www.quiltingboard.com/blogs/s...lts-b2192.html

I made a log cabin with the strangest fabric prints and it is absolutely stunning. When you cut them up in strips of 1.5 inches wide, you won't see all that weird stuff. I divided the fabric into two piles: dark and light. And the light only has to be lighter than the dark in the square. Some of the light was even into medium colors but still lighter than the dark.

I love this, lillybeck!! I, too, use whatever I want and have on hand in my quilts. The recipients don't care if it's 100% quilt-grade cotton or not so why should I? I have quilts my grandmother has made over her lifetime, and most of the material in those are poly/cotton and still look beautiful even with minor wear and tears.

To AshleyR:
Scrap quilts are really becomming the latest trend, in my opinion, based off what I see on the boards daily. If ya have a decent selection of lights/darks, why not a log cabin or basic 4/9 patches? I love looking at close-ups of scrap quilts, it is so amazing what all fabrics ya can find in one! But once all together, ya don't notice the Christmas trees next to skulls/crossbones or whatever else may be in one. Give it a go and good luck!

When you get all your 'unmatching' fabrics sewn together you will find that what you notice most is value, not a lot of individual pieces that don't look like they go together. To me that is the beauty of a scrap quilt.

To give you a little confidence, I never liked strippy quilts before I got desperate to use up scraps. "Gemstate" is absolutely right that the value comes out, not the individual strips. Try a square and just see. Throw in a rather plain strip every few rows and it also can make a tremendous difference. I made one for my granddaughter and she absolutely loved it and it was as scrappy as could be.

I lovet the log caebin idea, but even with scrappy blocks or half square triangles, just having a consistent background color/shade can really tie a lot of different fabrics into a lovely quilt. I have seen black, white and cream really make the quilt pop.

Try Bonnie's methods. Her scrappy quilts are beautiful.

Like several others have said, log cabins (especially with 1" or smaller finished logs) are great users of all kinds of scraps. My first scrappy log cabin is here - http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...in-t23612.html

I just made a quilt with scrap fabrics that included cow, building, cat and lots of other weird fabric. It came out beautiful and my friends thought it was wonderful. I hate log cabin so I made blocks of wonky stars and wonky squares. I did do the borders and back in one fabric to calm all the different fabrics. It is my favorite quilt.

I love buying scrap bags and there are always fabrics included that are really awful. I decided that I'd separate out all of the fabrics I'd never use for anything and make a string quilt (Eleanor Burns - Quilt In A Day). I cut everything into strips of varying widths and just started. No rhyme or reason, no coordination of colors, no decisions about light vs. dark. The resulting quilt is beautiful! I've had so many positive comments, and when people look at the individual fabrics they're surprised that they all combined to make something pretty. After that success, I decided to make another one just in greens and lilacs and blues. It's awful. Randomness apparently works much better.

if you can sort your scraps into lights/mediums/darks you can create fabulous quilts with a huge hodge-podge of variety that will work well. i've mixed homspuns, novelties, flannels, batiks--- an assortment of themes in the same quilt and been quite happy with the outcome...often it does not matter what the print is on a fabric-what matters is the value (light/medium/dark) placement.

A 9 patch using narrow black sashing strips is a marvelous way to use completely random squares and make them play together. The sashing doesn't have to be more than about an inch wide finished. Found some examples by googling images.

I also think a scrappy irish chain also works with primarily dark and mediums (save the lights for another project). Here's Bonnie Hunter's instructions.

Boy, those samples are beautiful. Some of Bonnie Hunter's squares don't look like much one square at a time, but the quilts are stunning. Some scrappy quilts look just bad to me and others are drop dead gorgeous. I don't know enough about color theory to be able to put my finger on why some just look better than others - is the secret in the darks vs med vs lights or what?

That is absolutely beautiful! So you sorted and cut based on color, right? Because when I look at your pictures, it really doesn't look so random--you have brown, green, and yellow (same family) together. Share your secret to sorting, please!

Another way to unify everything is use a single color sashing. I always use black, but any neutral will do. Frames the blocks, gives your eye a place to rest and ties everything together.

buy fabric that match alittle at a time like I do. fabric on the board has some good buy's on here and all kinds of material.

x marks the spot/ aka scrappity do dah (I made this with a ton of completely different fabric and gave it as a gift. (the recipients loved it)
cathedral window
shadow box (this is awesome with different and patterned fabrics... the more different, the better)
I feel like if you get a good quality white fabric, you could make a ton of different quilts with radically different fabrics and the white breaks it up. You could even do a more traditional quilt like an Irish chain with radically different fabric.
tumbling blocks looks great. Just have to worry about color values, not about coordinating fabrics.
You can even do a sampler quilt and just use the sashing to break things up a bit.
Rail fence is easy and fun

Enjoy making the quilt. Don't be too critical. Once it is quilted, alot of the "mistakes" fade away. I don't make "perfect" quilts. I make them fun. I enjoy learning new techniques. I also decided that some things are too difficult or not fun for me to do. I shy away from: machine applique (tried, disliked), hand piecing and handquilting (did well but too time consuming for me), anything three dimensional like purses (frighteningly bad results), and Y seams (tried but difficult and not fun for me). You may love the things I dislike or visa versa. Try some stuff on smaller quilts. See what you like/dislike and stick with the fun stuff. Enjoy it. Once you have done a few quilts, it becomes alot easier and alot more fun.

You could try making an I Spy quilt for a kid. that way you can use a variety of different prints or solids.

Enjoy the hunt and tame the stash. Enjoy the whole process and do not overly think about it. Quilts usually turn out better that way.

try missouri star quilt company they show blocks made with scraps

I agree with QuiltnNan...string quilt.

Ditto on looking at Quiltville.com. I went there a year ago and I am still stash busting and have many, many more to go. Bonnie Hunter has so many good ideas to use that stash that one could be busy for years and seldom have to shop for fabric, only backing and batting. Have fun. Watch the board too because so many of the wonderful participants are using stash to make beauties!

Lots of Different Fabrics
 

I too had many different odd sized/colored fabrics from clothing and project I had done for family and friends so I used them to create a quilt top that is my first large quilt I plan to create. It is my test model and is just for me so the 'quilting' police don't matter too much. I have a green material with sunflowers bordering the sides and the top and bottom borders are black and white leopard spot material. It is very colorful and odd. I'll try to add a picture so you can see it and you can tell me what you think about it. I love feedback as this is my first large one and I am a beginner.

I have to really like the fabrics together before I start the quilt. It's a gut feeling... If you are uneasy about throwing your pieces all together, I'd trust that feeling. You won't like the finished quilt, either.

I would wait and start collecting more fabric... looking for things to go with what you have. Get a feel for what you want to do with each type. It's worth it to wait to collect enough of the right pieces to go together. That's the artistry of quilting.

You could do some preliminary sorting---------------

by color, either by design color or maybe even background color.

or by design (animal, floral, kiddy)

or wovens vs. prints

sort solid separately, easy to grab what you need that way.

I sort mine into darks and lights. then you can choose to make dark blocks and light blocs.. or darks on one side and lights on another side of the same block

I agree there are great causes to donate a quilt .

The first 20 or so quilts my dad made when he retired had no rhyme or reason to them. He used whatever fabrics my mom had saved over the previous 40 years or so. They were great quilts!! So, go for it....use whatever you have. There really are no quilt police. :-)

A string quilt does seem like the best idea. I just got done with a string quilt block and love it. Nothing matched and it looks really great!

Yes, yes, yes & more yes! Bonnie Hunter works wonders with such disperate scraps you'd be surprised. I love her stuff (of course, I love scrap quilts). Another suggestion is to look at the scrap quilt thread here on the board for some inspiration.

Looking at these quilts was so inspiring. I have some ugly fabrics I acquired from someone who's mother dies and she wanted to get rid of them. Now I think I'll cut them into strips and make a string scrappy!

All good advice. Not convinced? Try this: arrange your fabrics so about only 2" of each is showing. Separate lights and darks first. Then take a picture. That can give you the idea of what they would look like together. You could show us that too.

I am using my stash. Its working out just fine. Its a big surprise opening the boxes. Its new all over again.

Recently I made a couple table toppers fro our house. Keepsake Quilting used to send you tons of 1inch squares when you joined there Gold club. I sorted them by color and did 9 patches of different color prints. Blue, orange, yellow, brown, red, white, black. Then I used sold sashing one has navy blue and one has hunter green I did a black white and gray one too. My DH and kids have been fighting over those things, you would be surprised what you can come up with!! Make some toppers for Christmas presents out of scraps if quilt tops aren't your thing or for your home to decorate tables, dressers or a wall space. Have fun!!!

My first scrappy quilt was made from horrible fat quarters that I hated but felt I had to use up before I bought new fabric. I cut them into strips and/or blocks and jut closed my eyes when it came to adding the next piece and sewed. Everything was random. That's the hardest part of scrappy quilting....we keep wanting it to make sense..we want to control the out come. I think doing a scrappy quilt is a good way of loosing the creative bent that we all have and can be a big step to beginning to trust our sense of how to put together a "regular" quilt.

Try www.laundrybasketquilts.com she has some great ideas for scraps and strips.