Are you a saver of your fabric scraps? Even those little bits and tiny pieces? Do you love quilting projects that aren’t all about precision? Then crumb quilting is for you! Pull out two scraps and sew them together. That’s it! And just keep sewing pieces together until you have a piece you like!

Crumb quilting is a type of patchwork quilting style where small scraps of fabric, often referred to as “crumbs,” are pieced together to create a quilt block or top. The crumbs can come from a variety of sources, such as leftover fabric from other quilting projects, scraps from clothing or other textiles, or intentionally cut pieces in various shapes and sizes.

In crumb piecing, the small pieces of fabric are pieced together in a random or improvisational manner, creating a unique and colorful quilt. The scrappy quilts can be made using various techniques, such as traditional patchwork, improvisational piecing, or foundation paper piecing.

Crumb quilts are often made with a focus on using up leftover fabric, which can make them a zero-waste, sustainable, and eco-friendly quilting option. They are also a great way for quilters to use up scraps and experiment with different fabric combinations and make beautiful quilts.

There is no crumb block quilt pattern per se, just have fun with your scraps!

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What are crumb quilt blocks?

Crumb quilt blocks are made from small scraps and fabric crumbs left over from other projects. All of the odd bits and shapes of fabric come together to make a unique quilt block. Because they are made with tiny bits and scraps, no two quilt blocks are the same.

These are the ultimate improv quilt blocks. As you create the patchwork, you pick the next fabric, making fabric decisions one at a time. Time to pull out your scrap bin and start having fun!

crumb quilting 2 chain sewing scraps together

Why crumb quilts?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to have a full bag of good scraps that just go into the garbage. There is always a need for an itty bitty piece of fabric for a project. But, the small pieces start to pile up.

Crumb quilts use up all of the tiniest scraps no matter how small.

Crumb quilting saves money – you don’t need to buy new fabric.
Crumb quilting is a mindless creative outlet – you just pull fabric and sew. There are no rules. No corners that need to match.
Crumb quilting is good for the environment – keeps all of those scraps don’t end up in the landfill – zero waste!

Here is our crumb quilting tutorial:

One (1) quilt block

How to Make a Crumb Quilt Block

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Active Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Difficulty: Beginner

Learn tips and tricks for making crumb blocks with our step-by-step tutorial with images.

Materials

A pile of fabric scraps - all sizes, shapes and colors - even tiny scraps are good for this project!
Thread

Tools

Sewing machine
Pressing surface
Iron
Rotary cutter
Cutting mat
Quilters ruler, square rulers work great

Instructions

Pull out a pile of your fabric scraps. Pick out a variety of values.
Start by pulling two fabrics that you want to sew together. If they both have a straight edge, just sew them together with a 1/4-inch seam allowance - or a skant 1/4-inch for really small pieces. The joy of working on a scrappy crumb quilt is that anything goes! Your seam allowances don't need to be perfect.
I use a chain method of sewing the pieces together. Just pick two pieces that might fit together and sew, keeping them all in a chain until I'm ready to move on to the next step.
Press to your preference. See our article on pressing seams. Some tutorials don't have you press between adding to your pieces. I prefer pressing as it makes it easier to add the next scrap. Here are all of my first round pieces sewn together and pressed.
Take these first pieces and see which ones you can sew together to create a larger piece. Things I look for are making sure that the fabric is different value. Sometimes I pick pieces with similar sizes, and other times pick different sizes. For a successful finished piece, you want different sizes of pieces.
Do it again. Here is the third round of sewing the pieces together.
Now is when I'm ready to do some trimming. The pieces are getting to be very odd shaped and hard to sew together if not trimmed.
Here are the pieces all trimmed and ready to sew back together again. Save those cut-offs for another crumb quilt project!
Here is the piece all sewn together. In looking at it, I think I have too much of that one print.
I had this other piece I had made previously that didn't have many prints, but used similar fabrics. So, I decided to cut them both up and put them together for a larger piece.
I started by cutting 3-1/2 inch strips from both, just for some consistency in sewing them back together. You can make them any size you'd like. I had some nice small pieces for visual interest, so decided to go a little bigger on the strips.
Then, I sewed them into one long strip, alternating between the two blocks so that the print pieces would be spread out more.
Next, I cut the strip into sections, making sure that the sections were not the same as the original cut. This is to make sure that there is a little bit of each of the crumb quilt blocks in each new piece. I choose 6-1/2 inch slices, but you could pick any size. Here they are laid out. Now the print is scattered around the block.
And, now all sewn together. I'm pretty happy with the final design. Now what to do with it?

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Crumb quilting ideas

What’s terrific about crumb quilting is there are no rules. Do what strikes your fancy! A perfect scrap-buster project to use up little crumbs of fabric when you feel like creating but don’t know where to start. Just pull out some scrap and start sewing them together!

Think about having a theme or color palette for your crumb quilt. Doing this will give your final crumb fabric piece a more pulled together look. Ideas are analogous color themes like red, orange and yellow. Or blue, turquoise and green. Another idea is to use different values of light and dark fabrics. Remember, there are no rules, just have fun!

crumb quilting 2 auditioning a strip of small pieces

Tips for crumb quilting

Start by pulling out fabrics that would be easy to sew together. Examples: sew squares and rectangles of similar size together. Sew strips together. Sew triangles together.
When you have several larger pieces sewn together, see which ones might work well together. If you need to cut one or more of them, do it! Then, continue to sew pieces together until you have your finished block the size.
One way to start is follow the log cabin or courthouse square format. Take your smaller pieces and sew them together first. Then take your longer strips and begin to add around the edges until you have your finished quilt block size.
Make your finished block size to a size for which you have a speciality quilters ruler. Then it is super easy to trim to your finished block size.
Trim some of your sewn crumb pieces at an angle, similar to a wonky log cabin to add more interest to your finished crumb fabric.
Work in sections for your final block or fabric piece. Think of making your crumb fabric as a puzzle where you are making smaller pieces that will all fit together for your final fabric. Then sew the sections together until they are as big as you’d like.
Don’t worry about matching your corners, perfect seam allowances or perfect pressing. Just have fun!

crumb quilting 2 sewing the messy strip of small pieces to the larger piece

What do I use to make a crumb quilt block?

Have extra quilt blocks from a project? How about that quilt block that you decided not to ‘un-sew’ but had been put together wrong? These are all perfect for crumb quilting! You can start with them whole, or cut them in half, quarters, triangle or any size and just start adding fabric on the edges!

What can I do with crumb quilt blocks?

Trim to a specific size in a quilt pattern and mix them in with other prints or solid fabrics for a scrappy look.
Sew together in larger pieces to make bags. See our article with a variety of free and easy bag patterns.
Use your crumb pieces for appliqué. You can either add fusible web to the back, do raw edge appliqué or scribble thread appliqué.
Make long strips of crumb strips to use for borders or sashes.
Have fun making scrappy improv style blocks.
Make colorful mug rugs or miniature quilts! It’s a fun way to use up small bits of fabric.
One idea is to not look, put your hand in your scrap bag, and use the next small piece of leftover fabric.

Here is where I added fusible web to the back of a piece, cut out a heart and fused to a background, also made from scraps. I followed our method for making fusible web postcards.

What is the difference between crumb quilting and crazy quilting?

Crazy quilting can use scraps of fabric, but generally is a more planned block than a crumb quilt block. Crazy quilting is then embellished with embroidery.

What is confetti quilting? How is it different than crumb quilting?

Confetti quilting is an appliqué technique where small pieces of fabric are used to create a design on fabric. The fabric pieces can either be sewn or fused onto a base fabric. Often, with confetti quilting, a top layer of tulle or organza is used to hold all of the little pieces in place and then stitched or quilted on top of this layer.

With crumb quilting, the small pieces are sewn together and then layered with batting and quilted.

Browse through more quilt tutorials on Create Whimsy.