Easy Peasy Scrappy Quilt
 

Scrappy Quilt

Scrappy quilts are my passion these days. When cutting fabric, I take odd-ball pieces and cut widths of 1-1/2”, 2”, and 2-1/2” strips, and throw them in their own boxes. Having WOF strips simplifies the process of getting the strips ready for the quilt but is not necessary.. When the box is full, I make a quilt for the charity I sew for. I was asked how to do this quilt so I made her a tutorial and will share it with the QB. I know a lot of you are experienced and there is more information than you need, but I want to help the new quilter who may be intimidated thinking this is not easy. This is NOT a difficult quilt to make.

The pictures accompanying this tutorial have been cut at 2”. The second from the bottom is one I made last week using 1-1/2” strips. The block in the tute ends up being 6-1/2” square, and 4 put together to make a 12-1/2” block. (I like the look of the 1-1/2” strips better. From now on will use the 2” for herringbone quilt tops.)

For my first attempt at this, I made this quilt using a 7” square of fabric, marking a 2” wide section down the center on the diagonal leaving the center blank and sewing strips to the end but it was expensive – I bought 108” backing fabric but that first quilt was a king size and used a lot of fabric for the blocks and for the backing. I should have used a wider section showing, and perhaps chosen something with better contrast so the X pattern would have showed up better. But we always learn when we do something new, don’t we? This quilt is shown in the last picture.

Now I have found something fabulous for the foundation instead of muslin. Pellon 830 is for pattern drafting and comes 42” wide and is only $2.49 a yard, and we all have those 40% off coupons from our neighborhood fabric/craft chain store, the one that starts with a J. It is very light weight, stable, and is washable. I cut 7” squares from this product.

So now I have figured how many blocks I want to make. (Make half blocks if you want something wider or longer than the 12-1/2” block will make. The one I am doing now from the 2” strips will be 3-1/2 blocks wide and 4-1/2” long, 42” x 54”, as was the one using the 1-1/2” strips. The length of the more narrow strips will not be the sme as you cut for the 2” strips. I don’t have it here to measure the length but I know you will be able to see how to measure those sizes.

Start by cutting 9-1/2” pieces of dark and of medium and light – half dark, and half light and medium. I do it this way to give my blocks more variety. In the case of this block cut from 2” width pieces, I cut pieces about 9-1/2” long, but at least 9-1/4”, 7-1/2”, and 5-1/2”. Keep scraps for the final little piece at the end. If I had used a slightly wider 9-1/2” piece, it would have eliminated the need for the little piece to fill in those ends. Half of the blocks will use one 9-1/2” dark and two 5-/12 dark and one 7-1/2 light, and a scrap of light for the end. The other half of your blocks will use the opposite – in light or medium, one 9-1/2 and two 5-1/2, one dark 7-1/2 and a dark scrap. I find it easiest to have all the strips cut to length, and assemble all of step one of the blocks starting with a light 9-1/2” strip in all the blocks, press, do the second set of strips, press, do the 3rd set of strips and press. Add the little piece, press and trim with a 6-1/2” square. Then do the same with the ones starting with a dark strip. Put two light blocks with two dark blocks and sew into a 12-1/2” square.

Hope you enjoyed this tute.

thanks for taking the time to show us how this is done

Thanks, you have made it look very easy will certainly give it a go.

Very pretty. I tend to do mine with strips of uneven widths so I don't have to match them when putting them together. I love the look, though, of the consistent widths you have used. Very clear tut!

Nice tutorial! The quilts you've made are so pretty! Thanks for the tip about the Pellon!

Great tut Judy! I love string quilts although I usually just use old telephone book pages, which tear off very easily. The Pellon seems like a good idea. Next one I start I am going to try it. Thanks for sharing.

Pellon is a great idea. Will have to try this.

Love it. Thanks for the great tutorial.

Interesting how no pieces match, yet when included in a quilt as you go, everything goes nicely and fits tog.. I love your quilt.

I use old phone books too...why buy something when you can recycle something...although phone books may become something of the past I believe....as someone else mentioned too, I use any width strip...have a large box now just waiting to be made into something useful!

Good job, this is the way I(age 7) learned to quilt. My Mom used every inch of fabric for quilting so paper blocks were the way to do that easier. Good tutorial.

Thank you so much. I was just working in my sewing room with scraps and trying to figure out how small is to small to keep, this gives me a great idea.

Pretty quilt! Thanks for the tut.

very nice!!!! luv it! definietly gotta try it!

Another way to get inexpensive backing is to buy bed skirts at the thrift store. After I remove the good cotton fabric in the ruffle, I save the flat material that it was attached to and use that as backing, both for t-shirt quilts and strip piecing.
It is usually some kind of lightweight poly and is always washable.
I usually can get bed skirts for a couple dollars and there is a lot of fabric to go around 3 sides of even a twin bed, so the top part is really free. LOL

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

thanks for sharing

Nice tutorial and lovely quilt! Thanks so much.

Judy, I too love making scrappys. The one I worked on this weekend & almost finished is pieced on phone book pages.
this one is a spider web design. I'll try to post a picture tomorrow.

Good tutorial! Thanks for sharing.

Love your quilts! Thanks for taking the time to share your instructions! Blessings!

Thanks for sharing this tutorial. This looks like something I need to try.

I loved your tute, so precise and good instructions. I am going to give this a try also and pick up some of the pellon to try.
Thanks so much for sharing your talent.
Pat

Thank you. I love your quilts. Will try one soon.

Thank you for the great tut! I have several containers of scraps and always intend to do something with them. Now I will! Again, thank you.

Great tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to give it to us.

This is mostly what I do with all my scraps. I love to use up the fabric doing these. I just hate to waste fabric.
Very nice looking quilt.

this is sort of like paper piecing, right? Do those of you that use phone book pages take remove them when the top is done? I can see leaving the pellon or muslin even tho it would make for a heavier quilt.

Sval: I remove them when I finish each block. Many people leave them in until everything is sewn together because it stabilizes the bias. It never seemed to me that it made that much difference.

The Amazing Jelly Roll Quilt by Three Dudes gives you almost the same pattern, but uses long strips or Jelly Rolls to start. Gives you a lot less scrap. But if you want to use up a lot of small pieces, this one is the way to go.

I think this is a great tutorial, thank you so much.

looking good!!!

Love your scrappy quilts! Thanks for the tutorial! Will definitely try the Pellon.

I use all kinds of fabric sizes using this method with phone book pages and make doll quilts for our local quilt shop's Christmas party donation. Each one comes out different and they are so much fun and easy to make. I usually take them to do at retreat so I don't need to think about what I am doing.

I recently made a baby quilt for my niece's new baby girl. It was a string quilt using MSQC papers for foundation. They worked really well.

I really like that look. I am more for controlled scrappy, which would be easy to do with this method. Thank you!

Great tutorial! Thank you :)

Thanks, Judy. We are awaiting Mystery Quilt #7. For a variation on the strip quilt, try the God's Eye.
Yes, my squares are not the same size yet.

Love your quilt.