Originally Posted by
PABerard
Oh I am so jealous. Any tips? I need to tame mine, but just don't know where to start.
This video regarding scrap sorting made the most logical sense to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zsofdI96Ws
Think about the size of pieces you use most often. 2-1/2" strips and squares are used a lot. Unless the strip is kind of short, I will leave it as a strip until I decide what to make with it. I can easily take several 2-1/2" strips and cut it down to squares, but I can't go the other way and turn my squares into rectangles or strips.
Anything wider than about 7-8" doesn't get cut up. I've got two plastic tubs for my initial sorting. One tub has the pieces of fabric that could be big enough to cut several quilt blocks out of it, but not quite enough fabric to wrap onto a foam board. The other tub has all of those little scraps in it. I keep those snipped snowball corners to use for string quilts. I have measured strips of 1-1/2", 2", 2-1/2", 3" and 3-1/2". Strips less than 1-1/2" simply go into a bag for string quilts.
If I have pieces left from quilts, I will put them into a zip bag and write the size on a piece of paper that goes in the bag. I hate having to re-measure any previous pieces of fabric.
By keeping your scraps sorted by strip width, you don't need to have 50 different storage tubs to accommodate all of the different scraps. If you have left-over 2-1/2" X 6-1/2" pieces, put them in a zip bag with the exact cut size and store them with your other 2-1/2" strips.
My scrap bin used to be just one massive mess until I watched this video and realized that sorting fabric by strip width made it much quicker to tame those scraps.