scrap quilting

Homey Squares, 2008, 48" x 72"
COLLECTION OF MICHAEL STONE

It’s a symbiotic relationship—a veteran quilter with lots of scraps and a neophyte with a need of fabrics.

Maurine Noble, my generous mentor, had tons of scrap that she gave to me. (Okay—about forty pounds.)

I picked up the two bags on a Friday night. That evening I began sorting them out, trying to make decide how to organize the little pieces of fabrics. By colors or patterns? It took me all weekend to get through the project, including ironing the most wrinkled ones. My collection looked almost impressive, filed by color hues in big ziplock bags, inside black plastic milk crates from Fred Meyer.

Not only is Maurine an expert quilter, author and teacher, she has great taste in fabrics. No calicoes, novelty fabrics or chintzes. Maurine loves global fabrics that are hand printed or hand dyed. So my stash is a wonderful and inspiring collection of great materials.

My fourth quilt is a green and gold scrap quilt. The square within square pattern took longer that I had expected. Each outer square is made up of four pieces. Once I made all the double squares (77 total), I trimmed them so they would line up well (308 cuts!). Then I hand stitched the quilt together.

I love scrap quilting—as the final effect has an appealing organic quality. And, as 100% cotton fabric is not cheap, it is a great way to access quilting fabrics.