Sort Scraps & Gather Fabric - Scrappy Geese Quilt Along

Alright! We are kicking off the Scrappy Geese Quilt Along today! This week we are going to focus on sorting scraps and gathering fabric for the Scrappy Geese Quilt. The foundation paper pieced Scrappy Geese are perfect for busting though your scrap fabric, but feel free to use fat quarters and yardage too.

(You can find the Scrappy Geese foundations here and all the Quilt Along details here.)

Sort Scraps

If you are using scraps to make the flying geese blocks, I recommend sorting them by color and size. For example, first, I divide my scraps into three sizes:

Strips (long narrow pieces of fabric - you know, for that strip quilt I’m going to make someday…)
‘Foldable’ pieces of fabric (usually larger than 10”)
Small scraps (usually smaller than 10”)

Within each size, I divided the scraps by color. I have a plastic shoe box that I keep the ‘foldable’ fabrics in, arranged by color, the strips I keep in a paper gift bag (I’m classy like that), and I put all the small scrap pieces in plastic ziplock bags (a different bag for each color) and toss them in a tote. Right now they are all out of their plastic bags and strewn all over my sewing table, so I am going to be sorting along with you this week.

But really, do whatever you need to do to be able to use your scraps effectively. There are a million ways to do this. Choose whatever method works best for you, your scraps, and your space. Here are some other ways people organize their scraps: Swoodson Says, The Sewing Loft, and The Quilters Planner.

Decide on a Color Scheme

Now that you have your scraps fairly under control it is time to choose which ones you will use in your quilt. Sometimes scrap quilts can end up looking a bit crazy if there is no plan. The easiest way to limit your pallet is by color. For example, if you are making each line of geese a different color, choose which five colors you are going to use. If you want the geese to fade from one color to another, decide on that. If you want a mix of fabric throughout the quilt, decide what colors you want to use (hint: maybe not all of them). For more examples, check out my blog post 3 Ways to Choose Fabric for a Scrap Quilt.

If you have a color you want to use but don’t think you have enough scraps, no problem. This is where we start to gather fabric from fat quarters and yardage.

Gather Fabric

If you think you’ll need more fabric than just your scraps, start pulling from fat quarters and yardage. It’s not cheating to use yardage in a scrap quilt. Everyone of my ‘scrap quilts’ has yardage in it. No shame. (though it does tend to make more scraps…)

You’ll also need to pull background fabric. You could go with a scrappy background or use all of the same fabric.

Fabric Requirements

With the wide variety of foundation paper pieced blocks, it is hard to come up with the exact amount of fabric needed. Not to mention, it would be near impossible for you to figure out how many yards of fabric were in a baggie of scraps. But here is a rough estimate.

Fabric for the Scrappy Geese:
At least 3 yards worth of scraps, fat quarters, or yardage.

Background Fabric: (This is more exact)
3 1/4 yards worth of scraps, fat quarters, or yardage

Cutting Instructions

I like to cut my background fabric as I go, but if you are a cut ahead type of person, here is what you are going to need.

Background Fabric:

(20) 7” squares cut on the diagonal (for the 5” x 10” Scrappy Geese)
(20) 6” squares cut on the diagonal (for the 4” x 8” Scrappy Geese)
(20) 5” squares cut on the diagonal (for the 3” x 6” Scrappy Geese)
(20) 4” squares cut on the diagonal (for the 2” x 4” Scrappy Geese)
(20) 3” squares cut on the diagonal (for the 1” x 2” Scrappy Geese)

(10) 1 1/2” x 16 1/2” strips
(10) 2 1/2” x 12 1/2” strips
(10) 3 1/2” x 8 1/2” strips
(10) 4 1/2” squares

Foundations

We are going to be making all 100 of the Scrappy Geese foundations. (Pattern here.) You can go ahead and print them all now, if you would like. If you look at one of the templates and decide you don’t want to make it (some of them are a bit detailed) feel free to substitute another in its place. Sewing is suppose to be fun!

Giveaway

We are having a giveaway for each section of the quilt along!

This week I am the sponsor and you can have your choice of a custom bundle of 8 fat quarters from my stash (I’ll pick out fabrics based on your likes) or up to $30 worth of patterns from my shop. (Quilters from outside the US will win the pattern - Sorry! Shipping is crazy.) The $30 can also be credited against any past purchases.

To enter, post a picture of the fabric you will be using for the quilt along on Instagram. You must put #scrappygeeseqalfabric, #scrappygeeseqal and @sewn.by.leila.gardunia in the caption so I can find your picture and enter you. The winner will be chosen randomly on the morning of the 24th of June.