rryder

I save everything. I use tiny crumbs for fabric collage and larger crumbs (wider than 1/2” ) get used to make fabric which I then cut into blocks for crumb quilts. Strings that are at least 3/8” x 3” get used in making a variety of craft items, currently I’m using them to make clothesline trivets, but I also use them to make funky scarves which are great fun to sew. I store my quilts by wrapping them around pool noodles and then covering with muslin to prevent fading—-I stand these on end and use my longer, stronger strings to tie the the muslin above and below the quilt rolls to keep them from sliding down. I also make string quilts and use HSTs in some of my art quilts, so I save triangles and thicker strings separately from the other large Crumbs and thin strings. If it’s between 5” and 2” I cut it into the largest size I am likely to use-these are my “precuts.”

Right now my scrap storage system consists of- 5 shoeboxes that I sort the really thin strings, small crumbs, larger crumbs, triangles and larger strings for string quilting. 2 drawers in my small arrow Suzi unit that are devoted to “precuts”. And 3 drawers in one of those cheap plastic units sold by target or wallyworld for all other scraps which get wrapped around comic boards and stored by size- smaller than a fat quarter, fat quarter, and smaller than 1 yard. 1 yard and up gets stored with yardage.

My rule is when a shoebox is full I have to do something with it before I can do something that will create new crumbs, strings or triangles LOL. I like scrappy quilts, so my “precuts” and larger scraps get used in my regular quilt making and don’t have the same tendency to take over the world that the smaller scraps would.

Rob