"Stash Buster" Quilts
 

So, I have stated before that I have been a piecer for years and making shirts and pillow cases etc. This has given me lots of 'stash' to work from. All the really great "stash buster" patterns I find require a large amount of white, or black, or neutral. Do you have a favorite true stash buster that I can use to actually bust my stash which is full of bright rainbow variety of colors, but not a lot of any one color at all. Thanks.

Look at the depression block on Quilters cache....I love it and you just use colorful scraps.

I have found the same problem. I will be watching to see if anyone can tell us what patterns to look at.

I did a scrappy in the Stretched Star pattern. I used white for the points. Easy pattern that looks difficult. Go to Autumn Stretched Star by Pat Speth.

Head over to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com and her blog from there. She occasionally hosts live webcams as she works and demonstrates, and loves to use old machines. Also Maryquilts.com. Lots of free patterns, and you can also google the names of the patterns shown for more inspiration.

It's not so much a question of color, but rather one of value.

If you divide your scraps/stash up into at least lights/med/darks and use the them in the appropriate patches, you can successfully make any block look great.

Value is more important than color.

eta:
And if by chance they all happen to the exact same value (unlikely, but bear with me), you can break them into color categories - brights vs. darks., warm vs. cool colors, etc.
There has to be some sort of contrast, otherwise you get ....mush.

And sometimes that might be what you want.....mush. Makes a great interesting background for applique.

The problem is when one doesn't want mush, and the fabrics used in a block don't have any, or very little, contrast - value or color.
Or you want a mush background, but it's all over the place and the applique pieces don't stand out - they get swallowed by all the noise in the background.

Bonnie hunter has a ton of patterns that would be perfect.

Agree with MTS. Sort your stash by value. If you need help determining value, take black and white pictures of your fabrics by either changing the setting on your camera, or using photo editing software. One of the prettiest quilts I ever made was a scrappy pineapple that had been sorted into lights & darks.

I am making this scrappy which I consider my first true scrappy. I was being overwhelmed by scraps & needed to use them somehow. I did have to buy some navy for the stars & I like how the stars draw your eye from how different all of the fabrics are!

French braid will use up smaller pieces of your stash.