Crumb/Scrap/Crazy Quilt

 

In January, I decided I needed another quilt for our lounge and I needed to use my scraps of fabric that were really too small for anything but either too pretty to toss or had memories attached to them e.g. I had made something for one of the kids, or they were part of the quilt block swaps I used to do, or Mum gave me the fabric.

So, I decided on a crumb/scrap/crazy quilt (whichever term you like).  I gathered all the pieces together and randomly started sewing fabrics together.

After sewing each section I ironed the seams flat then made sure there was a straight edge I could sew to another straight edge then it was back to the sewing stage.  I think I went through this cycle about five times so that the fabrics were really mixed up in the 7" blocks I created.

I decided on a black border to seperate the blocks and allow the eye to see each of the blocks lovely patterns that had been created.

I just love how tiny some of the pieces of fabrics became and the shapes that were created by cutting the straight edge and randomly picking another straight edge to be sewn together.

Then came the quilting itself - not my favourite stage but I am happy with the results and how smoothly it went together.  One of my best investments has been a quilting foot as that has stopped so much puckering.  The other thing I have learnt is to tape the backing fabric to the floor the layer then batting on top, next the top panel.  I then grab all the safety pins I have (one year I may purchase proper quilters pins) and start putting them in place ensuring they pin right through to the back panel to hold all sections in place.

This is the end result which I am really happy with - it's a bit in your face but I love that I could use pieces of fabric that were really too small for anything. I decided to bind the quilt in a binding that I created from remaining fabric scraps and I think this is my favourite part of the quilt.

I always use a pattern background fabric to hide any puckering and not so straight lines.  I saw this fabric and it reminded me of a circus which I think was appropriate for the front panel colour craziness.

The back panel with the scrap binding.

The best bit is - this quilt only took me four months to create as opposed to the two years I think the last quilt took to be finished.

Thanks for passing on by.