The Scrap Look: Designs, Fabrics, Colors and Piecing Techniques for Creating Multi-Fabric Quilts

Scrap quilts - the very name conjures up the hard times of early America when women sewed bed covers from bits of used or leftover cloth. Many a family memory was preserved in a treasured quilt through scraps from a grandmother's wedding dress, a mother's apron or a father's shirt. As America's economy improved, so did the choice of fabrics. Women began buying fabric specifically for quilts, then trading pieces with friends. Ultimately, charm quilts ( a form of scrap quilt in which no two pieces are alike) came into vogue. Some of these were more than a generation in the making - to allow time to collect as many as 1,000 different pieces for one quilt. The charm of the old, simpler ways of quiltmaking pervades everything Jinny Beyer writes in this, her fifth book. Through color photographs she shows her own sophisticated designs and reveals as always, in easy-to-follow text, drawings and more photographs, each step she takes to achieve such breathtaking results. Putting hundreds of pieces of different colors and patterns together in a harmonious whole becomes easy and exciting for anyone who follows her instructions. Most of the book's numerous designs for scrap quilts are one-patches and easy enough for the rankest amateur to handle.