Glorious Scrap Quilts (MORE inspiration!)

One of the joys of quilting is using up leftover scraps!  Here are 5 more stunning quilts made entirely from scraps. For more inspiration, please see our Free Patterns for Scrap Quilts (>PART 1 and >PART 2).

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Scrap the Universe, made and quilted by Barbara Harrell  

Truly stunning! Blue ribbon winner Barbara Harrell says that she designed this quilt to work on her curved piecing. "I wanted to scrap the individual elements to see how they played together."  Scrap the Universe won First Place in the Scrap-Solo category at the 2025 Quilt Arizona show.

Thanks for the Scraps, made and quilted by Katherine Kenward 

Katherine Kenward wanted to practice curved piecing and play with crumb blocks with non-square edges. This original quilt is the result! "A friend gave me lots of her scraps, so I was able to separate by shade as well as color."  (The title, Thanks for the Scraps, is a thank-you to her friend.)  

Bad Kitty by Heather Nothum, quilted by Penny Boese from the 2025 Quilt Arizona show. 

Heather Nothum used scraps to create a color wheel quilt.  She changed the middle to look like a black paint splotch, and used her cat's paw print to look like the cat had walked in the paint and on the quilt.  

 Bits and Pieces, made and quilted by Diana Anderson

 

This crumb quilt has almost 200 different fabrics in it! Diana Anderson says, "I love using scraps of fabric and I was challenged by one of my quilting sisters to see how many different fabrics I could use in a quilt."  Diana's design was inspired by a "Shadow Boxing" video by Donna Jordan.

WOW by Karen Fisher, quilted by Judith Davis

Winner of 1st place in the Two Person Small Pieced category at the 2024 Tucson Quilters Guild show. To start the collaboration, Judith Davis gave 32 mismatched, old and sundry fat quarters to Karen Fisher as a challenge to create a quilt, and the result was "WOW"! The quilt was then returned to the "giver" with the challenge, "Now quilt this"!  Beads and other embellishments add tons of visual interest.

Image credits: Photos of Thanks for the Scraps and WOW were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the the Tucson Quilters Guild 2024 show. Photos of Scrap the Universe, Bad Kitty, and Bits & Pieces were taken at the 2025 Quilt Arizona show.

 

Highlights of Quilt Arizona! (5)

The 2025 Quilt Arizona show features hundreds of quilters, many of whom spend the winter months in this sunny locale.  Here are some more highlights from the show.  We hope you enjoy our photos!

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Nandina #4, made and quilted by Stephanie Nordlin

 Winner of 1st place in the Art/Abstract category, Stephanie Nordlin says that this original design quilt was inspired by her photo of Nandina (a bush with red berries). She says, "I drew it small, tweaked it and had it enlarged. After that I smoothed curves, added detail lines, retraced the design and played with color before appliqueing."

Cinco de Mayo Kaffe Style, made and quilted by Peggy Foster

 This quilt is so cheerful with its bright Kaffe Fassett prints! Peggy Foster says, "A freezer paper piecing demonstration by Ann Peterson on "The Quilt Show" inspired me to try this quilting method.  Karen Stone's "Cinco de Mayo" pattern looked like a fun, colorful challenge.  I also enjoyed using bright threads to quilt the negative space on the quilt top." Her quilting echoes the spiky points of the New York Beauty blocks.

Mostly Sunny, made and quilted by Marianne Nowacki

Winner of Honorable Mention in the Modern-Solo category, Marianne Nowacki says that this "temperature quilt" shows the 2023 high and low temps every day recorded at Falcon Field in Mesa (Arizona). The blue light/dark blocks separate the months.  Small purple triangles on the blocks are the days it rained.  The color chart (which was on the back) shows the colors used for each 5 degrees of temperature.The quilting was done with a sun design!

Color, Color, Color, made and quilted by Merci Apodaca  

Beautiful, and so much fun:  This quilt was based on a published design from the book called Whizz Bang (Adventures with Folded Fabric qults) by Rachel Daisy. Merci Apodaca says, "I was inspired to make this quilt because of the whimsy, opportunity to combine many fabrics and dig into my collection of trims.  I was bedazzled by the simplistic techniques becoming a color feast for one's viewing pleasure." Fussy cut Tula Pink prints can be seen in the centers of the circle blocks. 

Giraffes Out of Africa, made and quilted by Barbara Harrell

We loved this stunning large quilt with its saturated colors, off-center medallion design, and multiple pieced borders. Barbara Harrell says this was a "very fun challenge. The center block and small giraffe blocks were purchased from an African textile booth years ago at a show."

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 Arizona Quilters Guild show.

Modern Quilt Month 2018

We're celebrating Modern Quilt Month at Q.I. What makes a quilt modern? According to The Modern Quilt Guild, the characteristics may include the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast, graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, and expansive negative space. All of these quilts were machine pieced... we hope you enjoy our selections!

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Versatile by Ruth White (Ithaca, New York)

This striking quilt was machine pieced with silk dupioni, commercial cotton batik, sateen jacquard, and flannel fabrics. Ruth White says, "The West African Adinkra symbol, Nkyinkyim translates to "twistings" and means initiative, dynamism, and versatility. The multiple sizes, with the reversed and inverted blocks in my design, demonstrate that versatility.  I inadvertently used another Adinkra symbol, Adinkrahene (meaning greatness or royalty), in one of my quilting motifs, the concentric circles."

Lite Brite by Maria Shell (Anchorage, Alaska)

Machine pieced and quilted, Lite Brite was inspired by the Northern Lights. Maria Shell says, "I have lived in Alaska for 21 years and the beauty of my natural surroundings still inspires me every day. When we visit in the spring, if we are lucky, the Northern Lights will come out. This quilt is inspired by the colors of those lights and how they streak across the dark night sky."

Heure Bleue IV by Marianne Bender-Chevalley (Fully, Valais, Switzerland)

Swirling shapes and lines are created with wonky cross blocks that shift from dark to light, suggesting the sun.  The name, Heure Bleue, refers to the blue hour, the moment when the sun sets, where everything turns blue. Marianne Bender-Chevalley says, "This is my favorite time. I like to feel and see this moment." Orange accents create complementary color accents within the blue blocks.

Lines of Communication #7 by Anne Hammond (Silver Spring, Maryland)

1st place winner in the Art - Abstract - Large quilt category at the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival,  Anne Hammond says, "I’m fascinated by the endless possibilities of lines and shapes. I enjoy working with my hand-dyed fabrics to create new and original art work."  Adjacent dark and light lines create the appearance of shadows in quilt, which was machine pieced and quilted.

Bella Sails by Barbara Harrell (Waddell, Arizona)

This was Barbara Harrell's entry for the Moda Bella Fabric Challenge. The challenge entries were required to include 12 Bella solid color fabrics. All the fabrics had to be used together with no other fabrics added.  We love this spiky design, which received the Mesa Art Center award at the 2018 Quilt Arizona show.

Four Happiness: Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi by Fan Soong (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Fan Soong used 1.5” fabric strips, cut from four Taiwanese fabrics and four solid colors, to create Chinese characters in this quilt. She says, "It is fun and easy. The Chinese characters Fu (fortune), Lu (prosperity), Shou (longevity), Xi (happiness) are the four traditional good luck symbols." The four blocks are repeated in each row.  This colorful quilt was machine pieced and hand quilted.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2018 Quilt Arizona show (Bella Sails) and the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival.