Sorting Scraps

I was flipping through my old copies of the Quilt Engagement Calendar looking for inspiration and I came across this quilt from about 1900.

I bet it's from Pennsylvania...

Where they liked to control the shading in their scrappy quilts.

A Bowmansville Star from the Flack Collection

Particularly in Bowmansville

Read more about Bowmansville PA in this post from the Rick Rack Rag:

http://www.rickrack.com/wordpress/?p=123

Detail of the quilt at the top

What I liked about this controlled scrap quilt was that it grew out of the center

and you could stop when you wanted to.

(Scroll down to see how big mine got.)

It still requires a careful sorting of the scraps---

which could take days---

Days full of entertainment.

I decided to sort into five shades

Very Light, Medium Light, Pink for the Medium, Medium Dark and Very Dark

I had some of the small pre-cut squares---

The Moda Candy packs

cut to 2-1/2", a size that will make great "very darks."

And a pack left over from Civil War Reunion that would make good mediums.

And some pinks left over from Metropolitan Fair, 

my previous Civil War reproduction collection and a stash of double pinks.

And I had some printed and woven shirtings for very lights.

Very Light, Medium Light, Medium Dark and Very Dark

I needed four shades of scraps. 

I found out a long time ago that sorting scraps into lights and darks works better if 

you add some buffer shades.

One buffer between each shade.

So I need 7 piles

Shaded from Very Light to Very Dark

I then throw out the Light, Medium and Dark piles, the buffer piles.

I mean I don't really throw them out. I set them aside for another project.

Which leaves me more sharply defined values. 4 shades.

You could also do this with 2-1/2" strips, cutting squares.

Here's my sketch in Electric Quilt.

I set up a grid-- a "quilt" of 11 x 11 blocks (any odd number)--- and then shaded it in with the fabric chooser.

Here's an EQ sketch for the center.

The original was a little bit more random.

It's 49 squares finishing to 2" each (7 x 7 squares).

A 14" finished block.

Very dark, very light and medium dark with a pink in the center.

Then you start adding borders.

It seems she alternated very light with medium light squares

I could keep going.

Here's a grid of 14 x 14 squares.

The maker of the quilt at the top added borders of dark strips cut in random lengths. She added some medium darks in those strips too.

They should be cut 2-1/2" wide and in lengths finishing to even numbers like

cutting lengths:

4-1/2"

6-1/2"

8-1/2", etc.

It seems like the dark borders are primarily cut like this

While the lighter borders alternate light and medium light.

You  alternate borders of light and medium light squares with borders of dark and medium dark strips till you get tired

or you run out of fabric.

I found this on Pinterest.

New or Old?

Whose?

(That's the problem with Pinterest---not enough credits)

It looks new-- and nice job of shading.

Below: Another scrap quilt with a controlled color scheme from an old Quilt Engagement Calendar.

It's pieced of squares only with yellow added to the pinks for pop.

Now, with all the planning I did here's what happened.

30" x 30"

pinned to the design wall.

I ran out of Candy squares.

So I stopped and

 put a pair of 2" borders on it.

I have a LOT more rows to go to make a full-sized quilt.

It would be fun to add 2-1/2" squares from different fabric collections working outward--- make a bed quilt of about a thousand pieces.

When pigs fly.

An inspirational machine name.