Propagating Quilt Potatoes

If you are a gardener you may have used pieces of an old potato to grow new potato plants.

This is another of my favorite ways to create a quilt.

I put all my "Wonder Under backed scraps almost to small to use" in a box and take them with me when I know I will have to wait somewhere for an appointment.


Then I let the shape of the scrap determine what interesting shape I can cut it in.
I cut as many pieces as I can from each piece and throw away the snivels. My supply is very low right now.

I like to keep those precut shapes on a large tray so I can see what I have.


I often use these to jump start a new small quilt.



I start with a background. The background can be a solid piece of fabric. For this particular quilt I used commercial fabrics.


The background for this quilt is also one piece. This was created entirely from my hand dyed fabrics.


A background can also be created with more than one piece of fabric as I did for this quilt. You can do this because of the design or also because you don't have one piece of fabric large enough to make the background.

I fuse the background to my batting before I create my design.

Of course I don't always have enough shapes to create a cohesive design. I cut more shapes as necessary to make a balanced and attractive composition.

It's a fun and freeing way to work and I come up with things I never could with any other working method.