Hi friends!
Lately I have been playing with some of my scraps in my fabric stash and wondering what to do with them. Which is pretty funny, as I have a lecture called How to Smash Your Stash!
I just spoke this week at a guild so I think that is why I have been playing around in my stash!
Crumb Quilt Blocks
Recently while scrolling thru Instagram, I have seen some posts on crumb quilt blocks. Are you familiar with that term? I wasn’t. But then again, I have been heavily into making some quilts for my next Signature fabric line with Island Batik so…. I have had my head down and been pedal to the metal with my sewing machine!
What are crumb quilt blocks?
Crumb quilting is basically scrap quilting with really small scraps or crumbs of fabric! Think about all those small shapes and bits of fabric- the really little ones- maybe less than 2″.
Do you keep really small scraps of fabric? That is such an ongoing issue for me. I HATE throwing away small bits of fabric, but when you make a lot of quilts, sometimes the scraps can pile up faster than you can use them!
Sewing a Crumb Quilt Block
But what a fun idea to use them to make scrappy improv style blocks using little crumbs of fabric. You can then sew the blocks together and use them as a quilt, make the small blocks into bags or popups, or mug rugs, or placemats….so many ways you can use them!
To get started, grab some small pieces of leftover fabric.
Sew 2 pieces together. If they both have a straight edge that helps, but I have also just sewed pieces together and trimmed the seam allowance afterwards!
My pieces happen to be leftovers from a project that had strips and squares, but you can use oddly shaped pieces as well.
You can sew a bunch of small pieces to a long strip and then cut them apart.
Then sew them together. Just keep adding pieces!
It motivated me to make a couple of scrappy, crumb quilt blocks (not sure my fabric pieces qualified as crumbs or scraps because some were big pieces but who cares!)
I quilted them using a beautiful variegated thread. Yummy!
Then I turned them into a crumb quilt zippered pouch!
This is a great technique when you need a little motivation. Ever have one of those days when you want to sew but don’t know what to make? Or you are struggling just a bit with your current quilt project?
Crumb quilting can be like play- there are no rules! You can just sit down at your sewing machine, find random crumbs and sew together the pieces. Then you can sew the bigger bits together. You could add leftover HST units, or partial blocks or….
What a fun way to sew and relax! You will feel great for using up those scraps, you will have fun because there are no rules and then when you are in the mood, sew those bits into whatever!
I set up one of my popups to catch fabric crumbs so I can save them up for the next crumb quilt block project!
How did it get full already? I guess I better get started….
More information on Crumb Quilting
Do you need more instruction? Here is a link to one video on crumb quilting, and here is a link to another video, so you can more ideas! You can even search YouTube for more videos on crumb quilting or crumb quilt blocks- there are lots of them!
happy quilting!
Kate
Thanks so much for the information you shared. I have made 1 crumb quilt. I’m looking forward to trying it again. Fabric is very expensive to be throwing away because of small pieces. I have made baby bibs with crumbs before. I’ve made bibs for my job. I work with children.
Kate, there is another process that uses a spray glued foundation to set the crumb pieces on, after which a layer of netting is positioned over the top. Could you do a tutorial on that process? cheryl warner
My mother-in-law and her sister give me all their quilt crumbs for appliqué but this looks really fun. Think I’ll give it a try.
I make table runners Using this technique all the time. Just never knew it had a name. How appropriate crumb quilting a table ruuner.
HAHA! A crumb quilt table runner!
Thanks for sharing, Kate! I love the pop-up basket; I might just need to try a few to corral my scraps.
Kerry,
they are pretty fun to make AND work great to hold fabric bits!