Putting Scraps To Use

Scraps are as much a part of quilting as water is to a fish!  Scraps, scraps, scraps.  We all have them, we all love them and we all wonder what to do with them.  Mine seem to multiply seemingly over night.  Do yours?!  At the end of every year I go through the agonizing sorting process.  Keep, use or toss.  I use to keep every little bit, and I mean every one.

I have been doing two things with my favorite scraps.  For the prints that I love and cannot part with, I have been cutting into 2 1/2" squares.  Solids have been cut into 5" squares. Both sizes are neatly stored for future projects!  Good start to the scrap pile.

My first scrap project are these red and black placemats.  There is something about that color combination that I like.  Classic.  Never out dated.  Making placemats is a perfect project for scraps.

I paired the red with black and began the piecing process.  Simple panels of red and black.

Strip piecing works great for these panels.  I never make any two a like.  I choose to pieces smaller pieces and mix and match so that each placemat is different.  I could save myself a lot of work...but then again I never seem to follow the easy path!

Red, black, red, black.  Repeat eight times!  

Eight done.  Eight different.  Eight the same.  I am still in the process of hand stitching the binding to the back, but they are well on their way to completion.

So.....why quit there?  I'm on a scrap mission!  I'm on a roll!  I decided a different color combination was in order! 

Orange, brown, gold...ewwww!  It sounds so dated don't you think?  Not necessarily.  I made a quilt using these colors.  You can check it out here.  The quilt is surrounded with off-white, but who wants white placemats?  Spills would be way too noticeable!  I'm going with a chocolate brown.  Perfect for spills and the perfect color to highlight the panels.

Using mostly Kaffe Fasset Shot Cottons, I began what I refer to as my 'mosaic' piecing. Each placemat gets 3 mosaics in 3 sizes.  Each different.  24 mosaics.  (going for the gold...8 placemats again!)  I am a big fan of the broken frame design.  The off-white not only sets the mosaics off, but the tiny brown frame makes this design for me.

I'm thinking the brown was a good choice.  What do you think?  At least they won't have to be washed as often as white!

There you have it!  Another 8 ready for the binding pile.  I didn't make a huge dent in my scraps.  I most likely never will.  Again...scraps are a part of quilting!

What do you do with your scraps?  I would love some to hear what they are!

Scrap:  a small piece or amount of something.  One that is left over after the greater amount is used.

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