I tried to resist, but the Scrappy Stash Quilt Along over at Ellison Lane Quilts proved too hard to resist.

My friends are impressed.  I’m not even surprised.  Even a bit embarassed, because I know that I made a lap-sized quilt out of blue scraps (plus one yard of fabric) late last year.

There are no rainbows here, even though all of the ROYGBIV quilts are fun to look at.  My entire SSQA quilt is Blue.  The whole thing.  The blocks completely came out of my blue scrap bag, too.  There was no going to the stash and adding fabrics to liven things up.  Please, take a minute to be impressed with my self-control.  There are fabrics in there that should have never seen the light of day again…

I loved how easy it was to make.  Because my blue bag was stuffed-to-overflowing, I’d grab out fabrics a handful at a time to use, and made 3 blocks at a time.  My only criteria in placing fabrics were (1) smallest amount of trimming possible and (2) not touching the same fabric.   Usually I look at fabrics and put them back (even into the scrap bin) becaue there might be a better use for them somewhere else.  Not here!  If it fit it got sewed on.

Those who have been following along know that I decided that a 1″ finished sashing in slate blue was required to calm, connect, and unify things.  In other words, I liked it a whole lot better with a common thread running among the blocks than simply setting them together given all of the chaos in the blocks.  There are 30s, novelties, Civil War, and modern fabrics…something was needed to make things look just a bit more unified.  Then I put a 3″ finished border on it to help it stay together just a little bit more.  My resident fabric consultant said I should use the slate blue for binding, so that’s what I did.

This is not a quilt for the ages.  This is a utility quilt, which means that it’s life will be spent in the garage, where it will be used to make ‘beds’ in the ‘houses’ defined by sidewalk chalk, safe zones for American Girl outdoor picnics, and tents over lawn chairs.  It will be a good life!

Thanks for stopping by!