If you enjoy swapping fabrics with other quilters, and if you also enjoy making scrappy quilts, then it's in the nick of time the Martingale Company has generously donated to our guild the book, Nickel Quilts: Great Designs from 5-Inch Scraps, by Pat Speth and Charlene Thode. Speth's and Thode's love of making scrappy quilts has its roots in their love for swapping fabric "scraps" with others. Not only is swapping scraps a great way to add extra zest, sparkle, and color to a stash, but it's also a great way to collect friends while collecting fabric. Their particular favorite method of fabric swapping is to trade 5-inch fabric squares with other quilters, and this is where the term "Nickel Quilts" comes from: scrappy quilts made primarily from fabric scraps 5 inches square.

Now, before you start thinking "scrappy" means lots of cutting and sewing together of teeny-tiny pieces, let me assure you this tedious method of piecing doesn't appeal to Speth and Thode either! Instead, they've developed a few quick and easy methods for getting the most out of 5-inch squares of fabric without a lot of work. Using basic rotary cutting methods, Speth and Thode came up with eight basic, simple to make "units", and all of the quilting projects in their book are made up of a combination of these. Excellent, clear instructions for making each of the units are provided in the "General Instructions" section of the book. While it is worthwhile to check out all of these before getting started on any of the book's projects, one unit is especially intriguing and worth a look - "Small Wonders" on page 16. It is one of those "wonders" that will help many other quilting projects even besides those in Nickel Quilts get sewn up more quickly.

The twenty "nickel quilts" included in the book may look complicated to make, but because Speth and Thode have broken them down into the "units" most of them are easy enough even for beginning quilters. They have added a handy skill level guide of "beginner," "easy," and "intermediate," so those who are beginners can establish a foundation of confidence before tackling one of the larger projects. As a bonus, each of the projects include instructions for lap, twin and queen sized quilts. Also included in the book are "nickel tips" (throw a mismatched white sock in when washing new fabric to see if you have a "bleeder," for example), and some great tips on organizing fabric swaps as well. Did you know you can cut twelve 5-inch squares out of a single fat quarter?! Scrappy quilts are appealing because their wide variety of fabrics and colors provide them with an inviting warmth and beauty, and also make them a lot of fun to look at. In Nickel Quilts, "Morning Star" (p66), "Tillie's Treasure" (p58), and "Paducah Nine Patch" (p54) are just a few of the book's many examples that prove this to be true. But Speth and Thode realize part of the warmth, and part of the fun, of making such quilts comes from being able to look at it afterward and recognize the many friends you've collected as you collected the scraps for the quilt along the way. And this, I believe, is the main reason they have written for all of us, Nickel Quilts.