Rodney

If you're dealing with a lot of fabric I'm a big fan of Rubbermaid or similar totes in around the 18 gallon size. They're big enough to hold a lot but not too big and heavy to move around as needed. They also stack neatly and don't collapse as easily as cardboard boxes would. If you know you will be using a lot of the sizes you mentioned I see no reason not to pre-cut as much as possible. That way it's all ready to go when you're ready.
Rodney

justflyingin

My thoughts exactly. I've cut all my small leftovers into strips and sometimes squares, but mostly I keep my fat quarters or large-enough-to-cut-something-out-of in plastic boxes based on color. My strips, I have to admit, are thrown into large 120 liter clear plastic bags. I have to dig when I want something from there. I have 2 bags filled with 2.5" strips, one with 2" strips and one with 1.5" strips.

willferg

I have faced the same dilemma, and I do find cutting things down from fabric gives me more room, especially if I give away the fabric to someone as a kit. I've used an assortment of things, but the plastic containers that cooked or baked food from the grocery store comes in is my current fave.

cricket_iscute

Thank you all. I have looked into your ideas and have found a lot of value there. I also looked in my copy of Judy Hopkin's book "Once More Around the Block" and see there are many blocks that can use standard sizes of squares, strips, and triangles for which I have Accuquilt dies (my Christmas gift to myself). Ford's book sounds great; I've been meaning to look into that. I'm going to go start cutting, and we'll see what happens. It will certainly save time and encourage productivity after the pieces are cut; I just hope it will decrease the volume of space needed to store this fabric in the sewing room.

A tip from a friend is that I should separate lights and darks as I cut and stack them by values, at least light and dark. Do any of you do that? Does it help your organization?

BTW, I've got some irregular scraps and recently, a donation of uncoordinated yardage to cut.

SimpsonFrances

Bonnie Hunter is the queen of scrap quilting. Go to Quiltville.com or buy a book of hers and find out her system for scraps. Yardage is a bit more difficult. A while back I learned a technique from this board of using comic board to wrap the yardage around and store in closet on shelves like books. I have redone my yardage that way. The big advantage is that I can see what I have and store by theme or color. The disadvantage is I have filled two closets. I had all that in the big storage bins but I didn't have a clue what I had in them and became frustrated when looking for fabric. For long yardages I purchased some foam-board cut from U-line. That is more expensive than the comic book boards but it is much more support on the shelves. Fortunately (sometimes unfortunately) I live by myself so I do have extra closets to use. If you have a studio with shelving, I would definitely take the time to organize. It took me probably two months (I still work) to get it done but it has slowed me down buying new fabric that I could have pulled a similar one from my stash. Hope this helps.

Annaquilts

I second this especially if you want to organize and cut all your scraps. I also keep scraps and make many of my quilts from scraps. I do not own an accuquilt. I organize scraps by colors and just cut them to the size needed when I make a quilt. It would be overwhelming to me to cut all the scraps even if I owned an accuquilt. I do think it is a good idea, cut by accuquilt or un cut, to organize scraps by at least dark and lights and or by color.

Retiredandquilting

My stash is in yardage, fat quarters, 5" squares and 2 1/2" strips. Any scraps smaller than a fat quarter get cut into 5" squares or 2 1/2" strips. I store these in plastic shoeboxes that I get at $ General, or Big lots for $1.00 each. This works very well for me. My yardage is stored on open shelves, and my fat quarters are in a dresser that is the base for my cutting board.

lclang

I had several big bags of scrap fabric and I used all I could in about a dozen quilt tops. What was left I am cutting into 4 and 5 inch squares and strips of varying widths and lengths. I cut up anything less than a quarter of a yard. I have made two full sized quilts and two baby quilts out of the strips so far and three bags from the four inch squares. I do not want to end up with a lot of wrinkled scraps that have to be cut and pressed before I can make anything out of them so I cut the scraps up as soon as I finish the current project.

coopah

When I bought some last fall at the Dollar Tree, it was a pleasant surprise to see "Made in the USA" stamped in them!

Byrdwoman

I just went thru all my stash and, depending on the size of the piece, I cut them into either 2 1/2", 4 1/2", 6 1/2" squares and have a drawer for each size (those cheepo bins from the $ store) Anything bigger I put in a separate drawer. My yardage is also kept separately. I have already found it really convenient to just pull out and use either as squares or cut into triangles. And, yes, it takes up much less space. I feel soooooo organized!!!