Carolina Chain Quilt

 Another scrap quilt!  This one was made with a pattern from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville, (called Carolina Chain).  She's famous (at least in my mind) for her Scrappy Trip pattern.  She also has many other patterns, and many free tutorials for scrappy quilts.

The blocks are on point, or at an angle, so this always makes the pattern look more complex than what it really is.

This block is so simple, only two shapes to cut out.  That's the kind I like, because I LOVE mindless cutting.  Yes, I love the cutting step in quilting!

So my only rule in this quilt was Value.  All the blocks have medium value fabrics for the outer pieces.  Then half of them have dark center squares, and half have light center squares.  This makes for the interesting chain pattern that emerges.

Colorwise, I had no rules in this quilt.  I just used randomly from my scraps.  Having a simple pattern with a Value rule, helps a scrappy quilt from being totally crazy!

SpiderWeb Quilt

In looking back through my blog, I'm realizing just how many quilts I've failed to post about in the last year.  I don't like this, because I like to have a bit of a timeline on the quilts I've made.  So here' s another one that was made probably a year ago.  

I used Thimbleblossom's pattern for this one, basically it's just a template to cut out the two different shapes needed.  Don't let this pattern intimidate you, it's really easy!  Also a great way to use up all those little strips from your scrap bin.

I did have a bit of a color palette in mind with this one, so I didn't use just any and every scrap.  It can be tricky sometimes to keep to a certain look, but not let it get boring by being too strict about it.  Like if you decide you want a subdued 'dirtier' look, you can't rigidly leave out all bright clear colors, because there might be a few that are just right.  And sometimes these projects take on a life of their own and turn out differently than you had imagined.  Those are usually the best ones!  

I've talked about this before, but I think that to make a successful quilt, you need at least one rule.  I do this subconsciously, but if I look back I can usually tell what my rule was.  Often there is more than one rule, but in a scrappy or improv quilt, there will be less rules.  

In this quilt, the obvious rule is the pattern.  It's a spiderweb pattern, and I stuck with the exact pattern, making no changes to the layout.  (other than the green of the stars changing, because I didn't have enough of one green)

The less obvious rule would be the color scheme, and it was very loose.  It's a little hard to explain on this one, as it was intuitive.  If I remember right, I made one wedge and really liked the feel of it, so I used that as my guide for all my fabric strips, trying to keep that feel.

Make sense?  I think having these rules keeps your quilt lively but not chaotic.  And it's more fun to make when you have some restraints.

Low Volume Scrap Quilts

When my “whites” scrap bin was overflowing I decided to make a bunch of blocks using a design idea from ‘Sunday Morning Quilts’, a favorite scrap quilting book.  

These blocks are fun and relaxing to make.  Also, when you choose to work with just one color, it’s hard to go wrong.  I like doing this when I’m quilting with scraps to avoid the completely crazy scrappy look.  Don’t get me wrong, I like that style too, but sometimes I want something a bit tamer, so I’ll do pinks, or blues and greens, etc.

In the end I had enough blocks for two quilts, a lap size and a baby size. 

Warm Summer Cottage Quilts ll

Once I had completed the two quilts that I showed you in my previous post, I had enough strips left for a small project.  I decided to make a table runner, which you can see in the first five photos of this post.

I had fun adding texture through different bits of lace and trim

Finally, after completing this table runner, I had enough scraps left for one randomly pieced quilt block!  Isn’t it amazing how far those scraps can go?

I decided to incorporate this one block into a design that I’d had in mind for a long time. Using lots of neural coloured fabrics, I put together one last quilt in this fabric palette.  I added in a bit of texture through lace and nubby linen like fabric.  

This last quilt ended up being my favourite of the four!