The Scrap Heap
Scrap or scrappy quilts have a reputation like no other in the quilting world.
In some eyes they are at the bottom of the (scrap) heap because of their very name but one thing you can be sure of is that each truly scrappy quilt will be a unique quilt.
It will be able to tell many stories and plot the course of its maker’s quilt career. It will totally confuse the quilt historian in years to come as the scraps could conceivably come from two or more decades of sewing and collecting.
The dictionary defines scrap as fragments, left-overs or even to discard as useless and scrappy as unequal in quality and badly finished, so it is no wonder that, to the uninitiated, a scrap quilt could be a regarded as an inferior object. And yet they have a rich history.
Victorian crazy patch quilts have showcased some stunning examples of a scrap quilt. Another Victorian rite that was perhaps a precursor to the more modern scrappies was the button gathering. Young ladies of that era collected and strung 999 buttons in the hope that their true love would bring them number 1000.
During the 1920s scrap quilts were more of a necessity. Hard times were truly the mother of invention. When it came to keeping the family warm the quilting mother was quick to cobble together any scraps. Probably it was around this time that scrap quilts became known as beggar quilts (as in asking for scraps).
These quilts were also known as odd feller quilts – obviously because no two fabrics matched.
Another, and probably much more acceptable, name is a charm quilt, so called because if you made one out of 1000 pieces it is charmed and destined to bring reality to any dreams dreamt under the quilts.
The millennium produced a plethora of charm quilts with fabric swaps around the world so that each was made with 2000 different fabrics. Some makers quite deliberately include a matching pair to add allure. In earlier time this was done so that a sick child could be kept occupied under the quilt by looking for the match.
Though the title may diminish the scrap quilt they are, by their definition a true representation of the quilting craft. The necessity to cut perfectly good fabric into small pieces has already been done. There is no better therapy than scrambling and caressing your way through your scrap heap and producing a stunning quilt.
Regards
Natalie Murdoch
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Wholly Quilts
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