More information on styles of scrap quilts:

1930's Scrap Quilts - Depression Era quilts were bright and happy to lift the spirits during a rough time in the history of the US. Fabrics used: checks, printed plaids, object prints, cute floral, animal or children prints, clear colors, and the use of feed sacks and flour sacks.

Colors - "bubble gum" pink, medium lavender, green, blue, some red, solids, muslin and Vintage white muslin (a softer, not so bright white)

Patterns - Double Wedding Ring, Grandmother's Flower Garden, intricate stars, elaborate applique and the use of black thread applique, Sunbonnet Sue, Fans, Dresden Plate, butterfly patterns, Bow Tie

Borders and Finishing - Prairie Points, Scalloped edges

Vintage Style Scrap Quilts

Colors - indigo blue, double pink, yellow green or "poison" green, turkey red, black and white shirting prints

Fabrics - stripes, plaids, simple prints

Patterns - stars, 9-patch, baskets, traditional blocks, Log Cabin, Snowball, Flying Geese, Churn Dash

"Maverick" blocks were often deliberately (or not) made reversing the lights and darks in a block. You can also cut some of the plaids and stripes off grain for a vintage look.

Setting - straight or diagonal, not the medallion format, blocks set either block to block or with sashing strips

Modern Scrap Quilts

Colors and Fabrics - texture prints, geometric prints, jewel tone colors, metallic prints, funky whimsical prints, hand dyes, batiks, white-on-white, tone-on-tone, read-as-solid, animal fur prints, ethnic fabrics

Patterns - combine blocks to make a new one, design the quilt as a whole rather than a collection of blocks, visual shading and gradation as in Watercolor quilts, often not a block-style quilt

One Patch Quilts - made from only one shape repeated in an all over fashion, i.e. squares, hexagons, triangles

Charm Quilts - one patch (one shape) with no fabric used more than once