Donation quilts are a great use for scraps, but they aren’t usually very exciting to make.  I make them more interesting by trying something new with each quilt.  

Most donation quilts are smaller than bed size, which makes them a good place to try new things.  Here’s an example where I “tweaked” the usual quilt design in several ways to make it more modern while still using older fabric from my stash.

First, this is a typical donation quilt.  It’s made 40″ x 40″ as requested by the charity, and it used up a fair number of those 5” charm squares that seem to reproduce themselves while the fabric closet door is closed. I used it to practice some of the quilting designs I’m learning in Leah Day’s Craftsy class, so I did learn something in making it.

And here’s what I decided to do on the next donation quilt for a children’s charity to make it more modern.  

I made these changes to made this design more modern:

1. The blocks are rectangles rather than squares.  It didn’t use up any charm squares, but it did use come cute fabric I’ve had for a while.
2. I found a nice coordinating almost-solid in my stash.  (Solids are commonly used in modern quilts.)
3. The rows run vertically and are offset by a half block starting alternate rows.  This breaks up the usual march of blocks across the quilt, making a diagonal zigzag pattern.  It doesn’t hurt that the quilt also is easier to construct because there are no corners to match 😉
4. The quilt was designed without a border.

If you’d like to make a quilt like this, I’ve made a separate page with instructions; click on this link.  If you make a quilt from this, send me a picture!