Scrap Cot/Crib Quilt in an afternoon!
by Tricia Revest (1998)
This can be made either from completely assorted scraps or from fabric cut from a group of fabrics. I did one with Provencal fabrics in mainly reds, yellow and green with borders and binding in plain yellow, green and red. Other good choices could be batiks, plaids or hand dyes.
Picure of the scrap quilt
You will need at least
18 x 4 1/2" squares (A)
50 x 2 1/2" squares (B)
12 x 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles (C)
If you cut a few extra B's and C's then you will find the arrangement easier.
A quick way of cutting these is to cut 4 1/2" strips and then cross cut into 4 1/2" squares or 2 1/2" rectangles. Also cut 2 1/2" strips and then crosscut into 4 1/2" rectangles or 2 1/2" squares.
Mixing up the patterns and colours randomly sew the following miniblocks. Sew C to one end of A. Make 6 (AC) Sew two B's together. Sew this rectangle to one end of A. Make 12 (ABB) Sew B to the short end of C. Make 6. (BC) Sew two B's together. Make 10 (BB)
On a table lay out the miniblocks onto a 5 by 7 grid (4 1/2" squares). Start with the AC and ABB blocks, varying the colours across the grid and the orientation. Then put in the BC blocks and finally fill in the last holes with the BB's. You may need to rearrange things a bit to get a pleasing arrangement and fill in all the holes. You might also like try rearranging blocks or putting in simple B's and C's so as to avoid sewing inset seams.
The sew the miniblocks together. By carefully planning in advance you will be able to sew the pieces together without any inset seams (see above).
Borders: Cut 1 1/2" strips to make an inner border. Then cut 3 1/2" strips for the outer border.
Quilting: Do whatever you like but a quick solution which looks nice is to start in one corner and quilt across the diagonals by eye. By stopping at the edge of the blocks and turning the quilt through 90 degrees and continuing on until you get back to the start you can do the whole quilt with only two starts/stops.
Binding: Cut 1 1/2" strips to bind.