Bonnie Hunter wrote in her “Scrap User’s System” article that our scraps are worth just as much as new yardage from the quilt shop. For me in England, that’s £9.60 per metre, or approximately $14.25 per yard in US dollars. That’s way too much value to toss into the waste basket, and it really gave me pause to think. That is when I started to respect my scraps.
I’ve been saving all my small pieces of good quilting cotton for years but didn’t really know what to do with them until I found some fantastic inspiration from three sources:
- Bonnie’s own “Crumbs, Crumbs, Crumbs” pattern on her Quiltville website;
- A photo tutorial for Crumb Chaos blocks on Patti’s blog. These are also known as “Mile a Minute” blocks; and
- A photo of a beautiful quilt made by Mary Johnson, shown here.
Last week, in between other sewing projects, I started making some crumb blocks of my own.
Here are some blue blocks showing their stages of evolution:
And some scrappy multi-colour blocks:
Eventually all the blocks will be trimmed to 8.5 inches square to finish up at 8 inches.
I’ve heard several people describe the making of these blocks as “therapeutic,” and I have to agree wholeheartedly. This kind of sewing doesn’t require a lot of concentration, and after about two hours, I felt very happy and productive to have created these little cuties!
Happy Quilting!
That was one of my favorites Dianne, I’m looking forward to seeing what these blocks become.
Little did I know last summer when I gave that to Adam’s girlfriend that a year later they’d be married and have little Caleb!