Thanks for all your input. How big a scrap do you use? I have started doing this a couple weeks ago and love not having to bother at the start to pull my thread to a decent length or worry aout the needle sucking up the thread and having to rethread and putting the scrap in so that I'm ready to go again a the snap of a finger. I just wonder if I'm using too large a scrap and therefore wasting just as much thread as I thought I was saving - LOL! I think that when I use to small a scrap that it is hard to get to when I want to cut it off after just a small piece that I'm sewing. Just last night I did discover that using my seam ripper and reaching behind to cut seemed to work better.
I've learned so much from all of you experience quilters. Thanks a lot.
I made my first projects, a table runner, then a wall hanging and then a scrappy denim/flannel quilt (although I don't really consider that quilting).