Scrap quilts- love them or hate them?

This is the actual quilt I used when I was a kid.  Look in the upper left- some of the patches have worn away- the yellow is the original backing.  I say original because the backing disintegrated and my mom added a new one.  
This quilt was made by my mother's grandmother- my great-grandmother- Jenny Marvin, pictured here when she was in her 90's and still making quilts!


















Her quilts were all scrappy- some made from what looks like old dresses or men's pajamas!  She used any fabric.   This one has scraps from some dresses my mom made for me when I was little.   




In her living room, there was always a quilt on the frame!  (Sorry for how dark it is- these are very old pictures.  Almost as old as I am!)

This might or might not be the quilt from the frame, but it is surely the same quilt I have in my collection (Left)



 





















These are the quilts I grew up with. 
They are tied, not quilted.  I was once told that makes them comforters, not quilts.   I objected strongly to that! 

This one is my favorite pattern of the ones she used.  I would love to replicate it some day. 









Here you can see she wasn't fussy about mixing fabrics.  The blue on the left is a shiny satin or rayon.  It has held up well, though.  The red paisley is a linen type fabric. 

This is one of the rare examples of a quilt with a border of any kind- probably only because it is a sashed setting.


I love how the value of the fabrics wasn't really a concern to her- or maybe she was playing with the values??  I regret that I was too young to be interested when she was still making these.




















I use this one on the guest room bed.  It must have been fairly new when  we cleaned out her house, as it seemed not to have been used at all. 



So it was only natural that I would make scrap quilts when I started making them!  We were having a discussion in my online guild a few weeks ago about scrap quilts.  Some girls love them, others think they are too chaotic.  Needless to say, I was on the love them side of the discussion.

There was great environmental news this week, when it was announced that China's largest city, Beijing, will ban the burning of coal in power plants by the year 2020.  The use of coal has long been known to be one of the biggest contributors to air pollution. This ban should (MUST) be the first step in moving toward cleaner technology world wide!! 

I am grateful for:
The cooler weather.  (Sorry summer lovers)
Grilled cheese sandwiches.
The blind kittens are truly blind.
The ArtCGirlz.
Finding help when I really needed it.