Scrap (Happy) Quilts!

This is our first-ever post about scrap quilts, although we've been collecting inspiration for years.  Our favorite scrap quilts are those with a cohesive design and color scheme; in other words, quilts that don't look too scrappy.  Have you ever made a scrap quilt?  Let us know which of these are your favorites!
NOTE: Please check out all the NEW quilt books and fabric at our eBay store !

Last Summer’s Leftovers by Rahna Summerlin

Last Summer’s Leftovers was machine pieced and machine quilted on a domestic sewing machine. Rahna Summerlin says, "I am constantly inspired by antique quilts and am infatuated with scrap quilts from the early to mid 1900s.” “I fell in love with an antique Railroad Crossing quilt I saw in Sharon Newman’s book Treasures from Yesteryear, Book 2. I made this quilt with lots of leftover triangles from a prior quilt I had made the year before."  For more of Rahna's lovely quilts, check out her blog at Blooming in Chintz.

Scrap Happy #3 by Kathy MacCleary

Kathy MacCleary is a member of the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame. She hand pieced nearly 9000 rectangles of small prints and solids to make this quilt. Scrap Happy was hand quilted with continuous meander starting in the center. This is an original design.

Talkin’ Turkey by Angela Neff, quilted by Ros Atwood

This wonderful, colorful quilt was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's turkey tracks block in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks from 100 Designers, Volume 5.  The quilt, with its many interesting prints, was 5 years in the making by Arizona guild members (2012-2017).

Note: The full quilt pattern, Talkin’ Turkey, is from the book String Fling by Bonnie K. Hunter; see Bonnie's full quilt at Quiltville.

Scrappy Broken Dishes by Judith McAfee, quilted by Cindy Leon

Featured at the 2016 Springville (Utah) quilt show, Judith McAfee says: “I call this a bottom-drawer quilt. The half-square triangles come from previous projects and accumulate in the drawer until a use is found, like this one. Add a few more fabrics and voilà, a new quilt.”

Scrappy Lizards by Bobbi Levy-Dodge, quilted by Jeannie Rogers

Lots of white space makes these colorful blocks really stand out. The blocks are actually half-square triangles, where half the triangle is string-pieced. Bobbi Levy-Dodge says, “These scraps are a reminder of all the wonderful quilts that have gone to live with family and friends." Check out the quilted lizards in the closeup photo below.

Churn Link Fence by Sherri Oxley

This quilt is a combination of churn dash and nine patch blocks, linked in an Irish chain design, providing lots of opportunities to use up tiny scraps.  Sherri Oxley says, “I’m definitely a scrap-happy gal, as you can see in this design that incorporates my love of scraps with the classic churn-dash block."

Tiny Village by Kris Lovetro, quilted by Debbie Stanton

House quilts make really fun scrap quilts! We love the use of bright colors on a white background, and the interesting trees between some of the houses. Kris Lovetro says, "I love house quilts and I knew [quilter] Debbie Stanton would be able to do her magic quilting on this one!" (We're still searching for the design source.)

Pomegranate Pineapples to Nuthatch Nests by Claudia Barner

There are 120 pineapple log cabin blocks in this large quilt, and each block has around 40 pieces by our count! Claudia Barner says, "This quilt is made entirely from scraps and could be a history of my quilting to date. The precise pineapples merged into more free form “bird nests” as my lights dwindled and I became bored with precision placement. The vines came from my love of gardening and concern for my aged Pomegranate tree."

The appliqued border has three-dimensional flowers and leaves, including some cute yo yos.

Stay tuned next week for another installment of Scrap Happy Quilts!

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2016 Springville, Utah quilt show (Scrappy Broken Dishes), the 2013 Houston International Quilt Festival (Last Summer's Leftovers) and the Arizona Quilters Guild shows, 2014-2017 (Scrap Happy #3, Talkin' Turkey, Pomegranate Pineapples, Scrappy Lizards, Tiny Village, and Churn Link Fence.)