Chester the bunny

I am terrible when it comes to having to throw anything away....I think it comes from my grandma, but I digress....
I piece my larger pieces together for backs and use some for potholders / rag quilts / but is there anything I can do with say 3" strips of batting? The stuff left behind after trimming your quilt?
Any ideas would be appreciated!

Carole

Monika

I save all my trimmings and then use it for stuffing for pet beds that I donate to the local SPCA.

Tartan

I zig zag my strips together until they are all gone. I can sometimes get a good size piece out of the strips and I set the new square aside for small projects. If I want to do pot holders, I cut 2 squares out and turn them so the zig zags go one way on the bottom batt and the other way on the top batt. They work just fine on a lot of small things like pin cushions, thread catchers, quilted pencil cases etc.

Neesie

You can also use small pieces as padding, for appliques.

starshine

Bookmarks, and coasters, mini blocks for ornaments or keychain fobs.

kateyb

My really small pieces go in a separate bag that I use for packing material when sending packages in the mail. My kids gave me a bad time until they got fragile items all safely padded. Teeny, tiny pieces become mulch in my garden.

katier825

I use them for purse straps. I'd piece them together for small items too. I found a great tip on here a while back...put 2 pieces together, using the ruler/rotary cutter, cut a nice straight edge, sew it with a hem stitch (has a few straight stitches, then a zigzag - keeping the straight on the outside and the zigzag catching both pieces), open and smooth it out. Works great and easier to line the two pieces up.

QuiltnNan

sometimes, a larger piece that i have is a smidge short on one side or just in the corner... so i use these small pieces to fill the larger piece out to a usable size

Sewhappytoquilt

Zig-zag together, use for rag quilt squares

Sunnye

Besides what the others have said, I make a "strip sandwich" to test my machine, thread, etc. when getting ready to quilt.