Caswews

Thanks for the post ...

wildyard

If my leftover pieces are long and uneven in any way, longer than a square, I mean, they go in the strings container. If they are longer than a square and are even, like leftover binding, unused pieces of borders, etc., they go in the strips, container. If they are squares of any size, they go into the squares file by size. Strings are all mixed together; strips are sorted by color; squares by size. The rest, uneven pieces of scraps that don't fit any other category are filed in my scraps section; shoe-boxes sorted by color. I don't like cutting them down ahead of time because I never know just what size I might need. That 1/4" I trim off to make that square might be just what I need to fit in this space I have to fill now. Ya know?

b.zang

With all these great suggestions for scraps, I will soon disappear into the scrap bin. Must sew them together soon......

joe'smom

I have to admit, the idea of spending all this time with scraps doesn't appeal to me at all (but then, my energy is quite limited). I think Bonnie Hunter and I are not meant for each other.

justflyingin

And I would tell you to "give them away/get rid of them" in that case. Life is too short to be doing something as a hobby that we don't enjoy.

quiltmouse

More discoveries...

I have 3 leaders/enders going. (I know, I know, I'm OCD...)

Sewing rows of snippets:

Sew them all the same color range/hue, then, you can use them as a log in a log cabin.

(item a) when sewing strips of snippets, it helps to be able to attach sets together. Every once in a while, make one of the snippets double or triple size to the rest. then, when you attach two sets together, there is a place you can trim the long one off and still have usable "fabric".

When getting ready to cut your fabric into your block size, go big. Not a little bigger, a lot bigger. So if you want 6.5, go 8, 9 or 10 inches. What you trim off is still fabric. If you were going for 6.5, and only made it 7 or 7.5, what you trim off is now trash. Item A, above applies to your snippet blocks, too. Every once in a while, if you insert a strip that is a double wide, there is a place to trim your block without having a row of half inch blocks or less that nearly or completely disappear in a seam allowance.

I'm making my wonky logs 12.5. some are sort of square, some are trapezoidal, some are diamonds, some are kites. Just depending on my initial cut on my first unit. If I cut a severe angle, as I added logs, if my strings had an angle, I put the wider end of the string on the shorter side of the block, kind of filling it in.

After I had 4-5 strips/logs all around, I started auditioning it on my 12.5 square ruler. I decided I would wonky frame them out to the block edge, alternating red and dark blues so I dont have to sash them. That is, I filled in all the final angles/logs on all four sides all red, or all blue, and will alternate the blocks.

when I got to the fill in to full block step, I just grabbed a half yard of dark blue and sewed my wonky log to it. then I put it under the 12.5 ruler & trimmed off. I actually sewed 4-5 blocks on at once to the half yard, some were on opposite sides of the fabric. Ironing & cutting with the half yard attached was a pain. On the reds, I sub cut my fill in fabric at 10", easy enough to manipulate on the ironing board, and large enough I would be able to get two, possibly three fill-in strips out of the width. That turned out much easier.

I have 10 wonky logs completed, 5 red & 5 blue. I sewed them together in sets of two, so I lay them out together, and could see the quilt coming together. I decided not to sew any more together, as my scraps will change color as I dig into my basement layers. I have enough red for the whole quilt, but the blues will vary by my scraps, so I need to be able to vary placement on final layout plan.

Oh, and on that final frame of the wonky logs, don't try to make your cut your final cut, make your block 1/4-3/8" bigger and retrim when you are done. I tried to make it the final cut, and it was causing to much alignment work on the remaining logs on that last framing row.

love to sew

please share your in process leaders and enders.

Quiltaddiction

I take all of my fabric that doesn't end up in a quilt and cut them into different size squares from 1.5 to 3 inches saving them for that next scrappy. I got that from Bonnie's leaders and enders when I did one of her mystery quilts. I love her tips on what to do with fabric that (dare I say it) gets tossed out. I am a true scrappy convert.

BerninaGirl

I am trying some of Bonnie's ideas and think I have gone off the deep end.

I don't throw anything away anymore, and now have this piece of fabric that I just keep adding crumbs to. It is growing on me I am going to make it into a bag to put my notions in.

I have not converted to the idea of cutting up a piece of fabric when I originally buy it yet, everything I cut, so far has been something I used for a different project.

quiltmouse

love to sew, I don't quite know what you mean.

Bonnie Hunter cuts all her scraps down into blocks & bricks. See this: http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml

Then she puts lights & darks of same side block next to her sewing machine. So when she sews a block on a current quilt, she sews off onto an ender, a dark & light square from these prepared cut scraps.

Leaders & Enders described here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/...-and-hows.html

She also has made crumb fabric here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/...bs-crumbs.html

This thread is my observations about her scrap system, using crumbs, strips and misc fabric bits for these leader/ender quilts.

I have my 3 leader enders in plastic shoe boxes.

I keep a stack of crumbs AND/OR strip AND/OR wonky log cabin bits pinned & ready to sew at my sewing machine.

As I work on my other quilts (*), I sew off onto these enders, leave it in the machine, and it becomes the leader for the next block to sew. I toss everything into the "to be pressed" shoebox, regular blocks and leaders/enders. Next time I am at the iron, I press it all, and put it in the shoe box "to be trimmed". Then I trim. My regular blocks go to their stack, and the leader/enders go to their shoebox.

Sometimes, when I can't decide what to work on next, or am dreading the next step of something, I just sit & sew up all my leader/ender pile. That's how I got 10 wonky logs to finished block stage.

When I use up the stack, I get out the shoeboxes & the crumbs/strips/scraps and pin a pile of new leaders/enders. I have to be in a right frame of mind. Sometimes, it makes me crazy and so I don't. Other times, it is restful. Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, what bit fits with what bit. Sometimes you love puzzles and sometimes you don't.

It all started with Bonnie. I just thought I would share the tidbits I discovered along the way.

I sew on a vintage Singer 403. In all my sewing (garments & quilt piecing), it requires a leader or it sucks the loose thread and sometimes the edge of the fabric down into the threadplate.

Berninagirl, when I buy fabric for a specific project, I get 1/4-1/3-1/2 yard extra to go into precuts, on purpose. I'm not cutting up large pieces of fabric, either. I am, however, trying to reduce ancient stash. Dated fabric patterns (80's calico, for example-I have an inordinate amount of this sort of thing) and slightly too thin fabric. Using it up for the fun of it. I wont end up with anything like an heirloom, but I am having fun. I also use this fabric to audition new blocks. I just made disappearing hourglass quilt (flimsy) with a bunch of thin-ish rust fabrics. I got to play with the block. The next plan for this flimsy is: Practice FMQ on it. That's the 2nd reason I made this quilt.

You know the rule, don't rotary cut when you are tired? With the D-hourglass, you sew your hourglass, then chop it up? I laid a completed block under my june tailor shapecutter & sliced it across. Ruined, of course. Thankful it was only made with "junque" fabric. I put the string in the strings, and the big chunk in the scrap shoeboxes & sewed them right into the crumbs. I think one strip ended up as a log in a wonky log.