Elizabeth A.

Since seeing this post a day or two ago myself have been trying my hand at itty bitty scraps, and wow what a different world it is. A bit of a pain too! I made a 2 1/2" star with itty bitty scraps and wow, it was a challenge! With my stitch width at 2 my poor little scraps were trying to pull apart, I'm glad it's one I can say I've tried and leave it at that. :D

Moonpi

It could be they're done nesting. If they're cotton, they will biodegrade anyway.

DonnaRae

You beat me too it. When I read this the artical actually said you could throw the strips in your garden (don't know the point of it except that they are biodegradable). My poor DH got so worried that I was going to put the pieces of fabric in the veg. garden to attract the birds. I did get a good laugh and told him birds need to eat too (We have four bird feeders)

LucyInTheSky

One of the quilt shops collects fabric scraps (no size too small) and a lady will take the scraps and make Humane Society dog beds out of them. The bigger scraps are the outside and the inside gets stuffed with the tiny little ones. I've noticed I'm able to part with scraps that realistically I won't ever use a lot easier when they're going to help out animals

Favorite Fabrics

I've taken my long but too-skinny-to-use strips, about 3/4" wide, and used them to tie up my tomatos. I've also used them to make a sort of trellis for peas and pole beans. Gives a sort of calico garden effect!

One year I even made an edging for the garden out of the cardboards... free, versus buying landscape timbers... but they do sag after many rains. Next year I'm thinking of using them to make the paths in the vegetable garden. Anything that reduces weeding is fine with me!

Bevanger

oh? how cute. you can also stuff them in a pillowcase, stitch shut, instant pet bed

Quilting Aggi

what a neat little idea!!! we have several little junkos and blue jays around our garden. We have two bird feeders out there and I think we are the local McDonalds drive thru of the block cause all the birds come to our place!! LOL We have to fill the feeders every few days. Right now they are busy gathering for the winter months.... I'll have to think of the scrap thing next spring when they are getting their nests together. Little miniature scrap quilts for their nests!! What colourful nests they will have! They will be the envy of their feathered friends!

BellaBoo

I save scraps and take to Salvation Army. The manager says the scrap bags sell as soon as they are put in the store.

Prism99

Years ago I saw a warning not to throw out scraps of fabrics for bird nests because fabric doesn't dry out fast enough. The idea was that after a rain, the nests remained damp too long and actually cause the baby birds to get sick. As I recall, it was a professional ornithologist who posted this in a similar thread on a quilting forum. Haven't been able to find confirmation of this problem when Googling, though, so I don't know if it has been discounted since then or if I am just not Googling in a way that will find that info.

On a different note, tiny scraps of fabric can be cut to make fusible pictures. A few years ago there were a couple of books out about how to do this. The author was on tv and demonstrated taking a pile of similar-colored-scraps and snipping them on to a fusible. In fact, I think that technique may have been called Snippet Sensations. (Later). Okay, I found the book on Amazon. Here is a link to it:
http://www.amazon.com/Snippet-Sensat.../dp/0873418034

I just unpacked an Accuquilt Go! and cut my first die shapes. I think I am going to cut my fabric pieces even larger than they specify so that I will have scraps big enough for a scrap quilt. Most of the pieces I have so far are too small even for a string quilt.

littlehud

What wonderful ideas for using your scraps. I want to try to reuse some of my tote of little scraps. I just can't throw them away.