I love scrappy quilts! There’s something so cozy and alive about them. My very first quilt ever was a scrappy quilt, and that style has stuck with me ever since.
I also find it a fun challenge to use fabrics I already have (though I’ll admit that “already have” sometimes includes the latest bundle that just arrived in the mail...) To me, scrappy is a style, not just a rule about leftovers. It’s about mixing prints, colors, and textures to create something that feels warm and personal.
Here are my best scrappy quilt tips, learned through many, many quilts and even more cups of coffee!
1. Start simple: limit your color palette
If you’re new to scrappy quilts, resist the temptation to use all your scraps at once. Instead, pick a few color groups to work with.
I usually choose white or light low-volumes as background, and then one or two color families for the rest. That could be blues and greens, or reds and pinks — whatever makes you happy.
Keeping to a limited palette helps your quilt feel calm and intentional, not chaotic. (Unless you’re going full rainbow — which is its own, glorious kind of chaos!)
But remember — it’s the overall impression of the fabric that matters most. You can absolutely use prints that have lots of colors in them, as long as they read as one color from a distance.
For example, in the background of my Knitty Rose quilt, there are fabrics with blue, purple, red, green, yellow, black, multicolored — even neon pink! But because they’re all small-scale prints and the background is light, they blend together and read as whites. That’s the magic of scale and value working together.
2. Value matters more than color
In a good scrappy quilt, contrast is key. Pay attention to the value (how light or dark the fabric is) within each color group.
If your background is light, keep the other fabrics darker — and the other way around.
A great example is my Knitty North Star quilt. The corner stars stand out because the light blues and turquoise are all lighter in value than the dark blue background — even though they sit right next to each other on the color wheel.
So before you start sewing, step back, squint your eyes, and check if your main motifs are visible. That tiny test never fails!
Having a little variation in hue is fine. Just make sure you’re not in doubt about whether the fabric is foreground or background. In the Knitty rose quilt below, the citrus yellow fabric with white dots has just enough contrast to the background. If I were to do it again, I might have switched it with a slightly darker one.
3. More fabrics = more fun
Scrappy quilts is all about variation. I try to make sure no two touching pieces are the same fabric. (Exeptions done for touching corners, I don’t mind that.)
That means you need variety! Within each color group, pick at least 10–12 different fabrics if you can. The more you mix, the richer the texture will feel.
Of course, there are exceptions. If you only need a few pieces in one color (like the four small squares in the center of Knitty North Star), it’s totally fine to repeat the same print.
4. Don’t be afraid to bend the rules
Once you’re comfortable mixing fabrics, start pushing your limits a bit. Try adding one fabric that almost doesn’t fit. Sometimes, that’s the magic ingredient.
In my Salty Fibers quilt, I used a low-volume background and squares in all kinds of “dirty reds”: tan, orange, pink. Then I threw in a sour green-yellow Cotton + Steel print with cats. It shouldn’t work… but it does!
Why? Because green is complementary to red, and the value (lightness/darkness) of that green matches the other colors. And, of course, the red and pink details on the cats pick up the reds and pinks in the other prints, which ties them together nicely.
5. pay attention to scale
Working with scale can be tricky in scrappy quilts. Large-scale prints often have a wide range of colors and contrast, meaning two pieces cut from the same fabric can look totally different.
That can be great if you use it intentionally. Large prints can add movement and surprise, especially if you pay attention to what part of the print ends up in each spot.
If you’re in doubt, start with small-scale prints like tiny florals, dots, or stars. They’re easier to blend, and they create a calm, cohesive look while still feeling scrappy.
Final thought
Scrappy quilts are about freedom and intuition. You don’t need to follow strict color theory or rules — but understanding value, balance, and texture helps you make better choices.
Most of all, have fun with your fabrics. Let your stash tell its story — even the weird prints deserve their moment to shine.
Here are a few of my patterns that lend themselves well to a scrappy look:
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Knitty North Star – play around with more colors in your scraps!
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Fjord star – keep your background solid, but play with scraps in the stars!