19 Scrappy Pieced Doll Quilts

Trying to use up the never-ending Pile O Scraps!!! Okay that is impossible to do! You end up with more scraps after cutting the backing fabric, and binding (if you use binding), and smaller scraps after using larger scraps, so the scraps keep on coming, lol! That's okay, because sometimes you need a mindless scrappy project to sew and sewing scrappy quilts, whether large or small is just satisfying. I do use up some scraps (even if it doesn't appear so) and making these doll quilts for a charitable cause is also something to feel good about as well. 

My quilt group makes doll quilts all year, anytime and we turn the doll quilts into the person who collects the doll quilts. Near Christmas time the doll quilts are given to a local woodworking group that we quilters partner with, who are busy all year making cute little wooden rocking doll beds. They give little girls a rocking doll bed with a fabric doll and a quilt. The woodworkers also make small wooden toys for the boys, but if they prefer a doll, they can have that instead and visa versa a girl could request a wooden toy instead. 

Periodically I make the doll quilts to use up all kinds of scraps I have. One year I made 75 doll quilts. I made 19 this time. I like to make the quilt 9" x 12", which is slightly larger than the suggested size of 8 1/2 x 11 (the size of a standard computer/typing paper). I have seen the quilts placed long way over the width of the doll bed, yet when sharing the doll quilts, most hold them up like a piece pf paper with the height being the long way, which to me never made any sense, so I make them like this and a bit larger, so the little girl can wrap her doll up in the quilt if she wants to.

I backed each one with flannel to make it soft and just sewed the quilt top and backing right-sides-together and left an opening to turn the quilt. I then topstitched all around and quilted it with a simple diagonal serpentine stitch from corner to corner. That is enough to hold it together. I did not add any batting as these have a bit more drape to them and batting would add a bit of stiffness (and cost). 

The pieced heart I had made awhile ago, so I appliquéd it on a piece of fabric and sewed more scraps around to make this doll quilt.

I used this backing for the quilt above and one other quilt.

Yellow flannel backing was used for a few of the quilts.

This flannel with stars was used as backing for a few quilts.

I used this flannel for a few backings.

This flannel I used for one backing.

This was not flannel, but used it as a backing. It was from a fat quarter I had won at my quilt group.

This flannel backing was used for one quilt. I quilted this one first and did straight line stitching and a bit more stitching, but then changed to the diagonal X serpentine stitching in the others as it was simpler and faster.

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