What do you do with your scraps when ...
#52
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: northern California
Posts: 1,098
If anyone feels the need to produce small scrapes they should make a watercolor quilt that ends up with 1" squares (cut 1.5"). One of my daughters LOVES Monet and I decided to make her a rendition of his garden. Since it was designed using a Monet calendar, several art books.... you get the idea..... there was no pattern. I bought tons of 8" strips off of bolts (at one JoAnn's that was moving and had a great sale I had in my cart 20 bolts to be cut; the clerk gasped and I told her "You people make us into addicted quilters so don't complain!" That got a lot of laughs from the others in line.
But the point is, if you are designing it as you go along, you make a lot of changes and there may be some flower design (or water, or... ) that doesn't fit at all, and many of the squares you cut up and place for consideration you never use at all. The result is that I have a plastic box for odds and ends with several hundred 1.5" squares!!! I hope to use them, but they probably will be given away after I die . But the quilt did win a first prize of Viewers Choice for Original Wall Art (at a fairly large 3 barn show), AND my daughter feels like she got the best quilt ever. I did do another quilt of 1" squares but it was a baby quilt and I used tiny pictures in a lot of it (like Big Red, or bugs, or ...) and could use only a few of the Monet squares LOL.
My larger scraps (smaller than a fat quarter) are kept in plastic bin drawers like others described, uncut because I do pictorial quilts often and use scraps when I can.
But the point is, if you are designing it as you go along, you make a lot of changes and there may be some flower design (or water, or... ) that doesn't fit at all, and many of the squares you cut up and place for consideration you never use at all. The result is that I have a plastic box for odds and ends with several hundred 1.5" squares!!! I hope to use them, but they probably will be given away after I die . But the quilt did win a first prize of Viewers Choice for Original Wall Art (at a fairly large 3 barn show), AND my daughter feels like she got the best quilt ever. I did do another quilt of 1" squares but it was a baby quilt and I used tiny pictures in a lot of it (like Big Red, or bugs, or ...) and could use only a few of the Monet squares LOL.
My larger scraps (smaller than a fat quarter) are kept in plastic bin drawers like others described, uncut because I do pictorial quilts often and use scraps when I can.
Last edited by Sierra; 09-19-2012 at 08:03 AM.
#53
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Bosque County, Texas
Posts: 2,709
I would absolutely always organize based on color. When I need to use a piece, I am always looking for a particular color, not on a color value. I never say "I need a dark color for this Christmas runner." I say, "I need a green for this Christmas runner."
#54
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Highlands Ranch, CO
Posts: 391
i "organize" my scraps into a 3 drawer bin, small (up to about 2"), medium (2-4") and large (5-8"). Then larger scraps get folded and put in another bin according to color or theme. I hate to cut up anything until I know exactly what size I'm going to need. Clear as mud?? Maybe, but it makes sense to me. LOL!!!
#55
I find it very easy for my scraps to take over my room, so a group of us bought a baby Go Cutter (I love it) and every now and then I sit down and use it to cut my scraps into 5" squares or 3 1/2" squares or triangles. They all fit neatly into a plastic shoe box labeled 5" squares and so on. Then when I want to make a quilt I am ready to go! I still have a ton of scraps they grow in the dark....
#56
Funny you should mention this...I spent all day yesterday cutting scraps. I decided that I would never use them if they weren't cut, so I went with 2 1/2" strips if it was still WOF and a small enough print, 10" squares if possible, 5" squares, 2 1/2" squares and 2" squares. Not sure if I made the right choice but what once was a tub now fits in drawers and the pile of charm squares makes me feel positively giddy!
"Odd" scraps are used as leaders, then tossed. Unless they are 2 1/2" wide: those are sewn together to eventually be a doll-baby-bed quilt for DGD.
#58
I just sort them by color and type. I don't cut them at all first. Since I don't know what I'm going to use them for I don't want to wind up with only small pieces of fabric when I need a larger piece. I know that the famous quilters don't do this, except for Eleanor Burns. Most of them cut them up into smaller squares and strips. I think Eleanor just puts them in bins and stores them until she wants to use them. You may want to listen to them instead of me.
#59
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Woodmere, NY
Posts: 1,422
I'm really laughing. There were a couple of very generous board members that shipped me out their scraps. I am in love. First I went through them, and cut off pieces to make 1.5" squares for my PSQ. While I was doing that, I cut a pieces for a friend, and shipped them out to her. Then I looked at them, and smiled. As soon as I couplete a four quilt unity project, I will use the scraps in a bunch of quilts, swaps, and donate lap quilts made from them. I am having such a great time with them. I don't own yardage.
#60
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: South East, PA
Posts: 345
I am halfway in between lol... I started out doing the Bonnie Hunter method... but then decided that 1.5 inch squares and strips were NOT my thing lol. HOWEVER... I have had all sorts of friends give me scraps... some are HUGE pieces, some are strips. I am TRYING to sort them into bins, but at the same time, I am thinking that I need to somehow sort by color as well. If I live to be 200, I think I could still be sewing JUST using scraps. Lots of great ideas here!!!
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