New Plan for Random Square Rag Quilt and Crumb or Crazy Quilt Blocks

I'm still loving playing with the small scraps of fabric to work on crumb quilt blocks, but since I don't have scraps from a lot of different fabrics right now, I'm sorta at a standstill.  I still haven't found my stupid cutting mats (but in all honesty, I haven't looked much lately) so can't do a lot of cutting for a regular rag quilt right now, but I still need a 'fix'.

It doesn't make sense to go buy fabric just to cut into small pieces for the crazy blocks, so I came up with another plan.  I do want to make a regular rag quilt out of random squares of different fabrics at some point (with each square a single fabric, but each block being different from the rest), so what I'm going to do is buy fat quarters on sale or with a coupon, and cut whatever regular size squares I can from those for the random squares quilt, and use the scrap remnants for the crumb quilt blocks.  I can use my scissors to cut the pieces large enough to make blocks with my rotary cutter and mat later, and still get the bits of scraps to use for the crumb-y squares now.  Win-win!

With that in mind and 60% and 40% coupons from Michael's in hand, another 40% in the Hobby Lobby app on my phone, off I went to see what I could drum up.

Here's what I found ...

Fat quarter bundle from Hobby Lobby

Two fat quarters from Michael's

Aren't they delicious?  I love all the bright colors, but this animal print really made me smile.

With these fabrics added to my current stash of scraps, I should have enough different prints and colors to make a few more crumb blocks now, and can use a coupon every time I hit Hobby Lobby (not sure how often Michael's coupons come out) to get more without breaking the bank.  I think I can afford to splurge for a dollar or two a couple of times a month.

Stay crafty ...

~ Marie Anne

Crazy Crumb Quilt Blocks in the Making

I posted the other day that I wanted to start making crumb quilt blocks, and so it begins!  I grabbed my stash of bits and pieces of remnants from various earlier projects and starting sewing them together in a random fashion.   It doesn't matter if the piece you start with is already fairly big, because once you sew it to another piece, you can trim that and make two (or more) pieces from it.  Then you piece those together with others, and just keeping adding and trimming until you have something large enough to square up into a block the size that you want.

I'm trying to put some pieces in a wonky direction just for a bit of interest, but I haven't done as much of that as I'd like, so will work on that more.  I need more fabric scraps with a variety of colors and patterns before I can go much further.  Here are a few examples of blocks I'm working on now.

You're supposed to do this completely random, but I had small pieces with a whole owl showing, and I couldn't not use them intact.  I figure they will be add a bit of whimsy to my finished piece.  Don't judge.  :)

I have no idea what my blocks will eventually be fashioned into, but I don't have to worry about that just yet.  It will take me time to build up enough of a stash to make the blocks random and not matchy-matchy, so I'll probably work on my crumb quilt blocks in between other projects.   Because of all the seams, I'll have to put a sashing border around them if I want to use them in a rag quilt, so I'm not sure if that will be my goal or not.  For now, I will just continue to build on them until I have enough to decide what size blocks I want to trim them into.

If you want to learn how to make crazy blocks like this, check out Darlene's crumb quilt block tutorials on youtube.  She has a whole series of various ways to make them.  (Word of caution:  she does throw in a word or two here and there that aren't fit for little ears, but very few, maybe 4-5 words in 10 videos.  The tutorials are worth it, IMO).

Someday I'll figure out how to do my own videos, but I will try to show as much as I can in photos here on the blog.  I'll do another post soon showing how you can take larger scraps and turn them into crumby pieces by stitching to other pieces then cutting.

~ Marie Anne

P.S.  This is one of the cutting mat and ruler sets that I have, and I love it!  Unfortunately, I have no idea where my mats and dquilting rulers are since moving.  I guess I should make finding them a priority.

A Crummy Idea - Crumb Quilt Blocks With Fabric Scraps

I posted yesterday that I might try to make a rag quilt out of random squares of scrap material, with no real rhyme or reason.  I asked sewing friends in a Facebook group for ideas on how to get past my need for order, and one suggested that I look up crumb quilts.

Ohmy. I found some youtube tutorials on how to make crumb quilt blocks, and I think I'm in love.  I now have a use for all of the tiny scraps that aren't big enough to make squares of their own!  When sorting fabric yesterday, I had thrown away a bag full of small scraps, but after a few minutes watching the videos, I went right out and grabbed that bag.  Yep, I did some dumpster diving right here at home.

I'm not sure yet how it will work out for rag quilting, though; since there will be so many seams in a single block, they might not rag well, but I'm going to play with it and see what happens.  If it doesn't work out as is, I might try to sew a strip of border around each piece, which would make the four sides more like a traditional block.  Worst case - if I can't use them to make rag quilts, I can make up the blocks and list them for sale, or donate them to someone who can use them in a traditional quilt. Either way, it'll be fun to play with all the colors and patterns and make something pretty out of scraps that can then be put to good use somehow instead of ending up in the garbage.

So today's agenda includes trying to make crumb quilt blocks.  But first ... did you notice anything in the photo above?  I knew right where my sewing machine was and got all excited to start, but something is missing.  In true MA fashion - I have no idea where the cord is!

~ Marie Anne