wish we had a "like" button! I do them also. Ohio gets cold too. it was 27 degrees when I got up at 6:30 this morn.

That's what we do with scraps in our guild. We make pet beds and donate them to the local shelters.

I save all my little snippets and give them to a lady who makes dog beds for the Humane Society. I am not filling landfills and every smidgen goes to a use. I just hang a bag on my cutting table and everything goes in it. Maybe someone does this in your area. Your local Humane Society could probably tell you. At the price of fabrics, we do need to find a use for every inch.

I'm saving some to use instead of ribbon for Christmas gifts--not sure it will work well, but figured a good way to use up some fabric scaps and be a little recyling!

If you have a wood stove or fireplace, burn your 100% cotton strings. I use a lot of my scraps instead of paper to get my fires started in my wood stove. (Not needed/do not use in pellet stoves to start fire).

I like the idea of making pet beds with the scraps.

Anita

Regarding fabric and birds ...

Another reason not to give fabric scraps to birds is that they'll re-arrange the scraps over and over when they build their nests, and in the process, some of the strings will fray. The frayed strings can easily get tangled around the birds' legs, especially small birds, whose legs are the size of toothpicks. I used to have finches, and found this out the hard way. Thankfully I found the bird in time and untangled her leg. Whew! Had I not found the problem, the thread could have cut the circulation off, and her leg and foot would have died. Birds can be so fragile, especially tiny ones who don't have enough strength to break the thread and get it off their leg.

Personally, I wouldn't chance it, but if you do decide to let the birds have the scraps, cut them into 1" or smaller bits to help eliminate the possibility of threads getting tangled around their legs. :)

I safe mine and give to a friend who makes pillows that she takes to the dog pound for the animals.

Wow, I'll never look at a "string" the same way again. Just looked at that Anne Bauer site - and that lady has patience!! She doesn't command a simple price either, but the work involved. :-)

Marysewfun

They can but cut into small pieces and put in a doggie pillow and delivered to a local pet rescue. We do that in our guild.

They look perfect for a spiderweb or string quilt. With those batiks it would look awesome.
peace