Reorganizing Scraps!!
 

I had my stuff pretty well organized I thought. Then my daughter and her two sons moved in with us and my sewing room became my grandson's bedroom, and I moved my sewing stuff to our bedroom. Not much quilting in the last six months. Now I have moved with my daughter to a new home close to my ex and other daughter (I've moved to help her out for a while with her young children). I have a great sewing room!! I had all my bins down there ready to store. The grandkids got into them and mixed up all my scraps!!

So now I'm looking for a very practical way to organize scraps. How do you organize your scraps?

Fabrics on shelves, but I also have quite a bit in plastic bins. I use the Bonnie Hunter method for scraps and right now those are also on shelves, but I will be using those clear plastic bins that fit under beds soon (about 6 inches high and long and flat), and those scraps will be tucked in there in the different sizes. Those I'll keep under my table I sew on, so its close by to use to piece quilt tops. Congratulations on your move to a place where you have your own sewing room again!

Do your grandkids know the different colors? Have them separate into piles of same colors for you. If you have separate boxes for the colors they can then put them in the boxes for you. They messed them up, let them clean them up.

I follow the Bonnie Hunter system. I keep lights/darks in 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 strips in plastic drawers. I also have a bricks box, small misc scrap box, I have 3.5 and a 4.5 box. Then my FQ and lengths of fabric are on boards on shelves. Still need some tweaking but I'm pretty happy with this system.

I save the zipper bags that you get with sheets, bedspreads, etc. They are clear so you can see what's inside.

I went to organize everything - a store here and picked up a dozen cheap clear shoe box size plastic boxes. They're just scraps so I'm not worried about storing them in plastic (I am in and out of the boxes on a regular basis). I just did mine again and they look great on the bakers rack in my sewing room. One shelf is just those boxes of color coded scraps. I have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, white, Black & Whites, Pink and Kids Novelty. So far so good! Happy quilting!

I follow the scrap organization explained in Sunday Morning Quilts. I sort scraps (anything less than a fq) by color. Each gets its own clear shoebox bin. Then I also have a bin for strips and one for snipets. I'm also saving smaller strips and salvages for knitting a rug...eventually.

I sort and store by color and type.. batiks with batiks.. traditional , and metalics. The bins are color "groupings" red, orange, yellow , brown in one bin. Green , blue , purple in another. One is just for tone on tone or muslin scraps. If it helps print off a color wheel and cut the quarter or third ( what ever works for the amount of scraps and size of bins) , and tape it to the lid or front .. so you can guide your scrap saving into the proper box.

Would you please come to my house?? I don't have my yardage that well organized, much less my scraps.:o I'll feed you, give you good coffee, and all the dog-lick facials you can stand!

ps: you can bring your dog, too!