For the longest time I would only freely cut into my "scraps" while the good fabric stayed folded on the shelf...waiting for that special project that was worthy of cutting it up! After a while I realized...years had gone by and I never made any quilts out of the "good" fabric. The majority of the quilts that hang around my house and are on display are from scraps! I eventually stopped seeing fabric for it's cost or design but now it's color and it's color value, and it's totally changed the way I approach ANY of my fabric.
