Breaking out the leftovers…
I am an obsessive fabric scrap saver. My rule: If it’s over 2” square, I save it. My studio is overflowing with colored bins of sorted fabric-from fat quarters to leftover strips from past projects to those small squares.
Now that I’ve stated my position on scrap saving, you’d probably expect that I make scrap projects galore. I usually don’t-working in the quilt industry, I’m exposed to too much new fabric, and I can’t resist it. Which is why I’m particularly proud that my latest project, a baby quilt for a friend’s newborn boy, is all scrap.
I decided to sew a ragged edge design to save myself the time and money of getting it quilted. I pulled out my collection of blue, green and purple flannels to see what I had to work with. I’m at the age where a lot of my friends are having babies, so I’ve made a lot of baby quilts, which means lots of leftovers! I measured my scraps and figured out that I could get the maximum number of pieces from cutting 6” squares. I spent one afternoon cutting, one (quick!) evening sewing ”X”s across sandwiched squares, and now it’s time for the tricky part: laying out the squares on my design wall. After that’s done, I’ll sew the blocks in rows, join the rows, and start snipping the seam allowances. Voila! Instant quilt. Hooray for scraps!
Lisa Swenson Ruble
About the Author: Lisa Swenson Ruble
I made my first quilt when I graduated from college and realized that I needed a hobby to fill all those hours that used to be dedicated to homework! Eleven years later, I'm completely addicted to quilting and thrilled that my day job as the managing editor for Quilt, Simple Quilts & Sewing and Quilt Almanac allows me to "play" with quilts and the friendly world of quilters!
Find great quilting and sewing references at our 
Leave a comment