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!
