SillySusan

I feel so wasteful after reading some of your comments. I toss almost every scrap smaller than 5". Life is just too short and the world needs so many quilts to keep warm and comfortable. If its under 5", it has to be a great piece of fabric.

luvstoquilt

I save a lot as I adore scrappy quilts and mini quilts. January is my official scrap month. I make quilts for donation all during January with my scraps. This year I have started organizing my scraps on the first 2 days of the month because I sewed scraps all the way through March. I stopped in March because I decided that was enough! It is going to have me all ready to just sew in January! I cut 2 1/2" strips and color coordinate them until I have enough for a jelly roll, 1 1/2" strips, 2 1/2" squares. 1 1/2" squares, 1 1/2"x5 ", etc.

Sleepy Hollow

I save anything 1" or wider, unless I'm not a big fan of the fabric, and then I might toss it unless it's a larger scrap. Someday I want to make a queen size scrap quilt, but until then I've been using them for other projects-- postcards, paper pieced blocks, etc. I was given a bunch of white-on-white strips in a bag of scraps. There were several fun patterns, but not really enough to do the complete background on some larger blocks. So, I mixed them up and made them the background on some of my farm blocks (for the swap). I loved the way it turned out! Simple, but looks like some fun patchwork in the block.

DJ

Personally, I've just started trying to cut my voluminous scraps into usable squares and strips. They store more compactly and look pretty too. That said, I don't save anything smaller than 2 1/2". I cut 5" strips or squares and 2 1/2" strips or squares. I'm not even sure I'll ever use them, but as I said, they store better and look nicer and someone, someday, will probably want them.

Smaller scraps go into a pillowcase that will get sewn up and donated to the local animal shelter for pet beds. I've confirmed that they want them. They say they give them to people who adopt a pet.

SusieQOH

I rarely save scraps because when I'm finished with a project I'm usually sick of the fabrics. But I give them away so someone else can enjoy them. I don't have the patience to deal with them.

Mariposa

I save all the little bits. Have several projects in progress, and I love minis! Collecting 1.5" squares for a charm postage stamp quilt, doing an Ohmigosh- uses 1" squares too, and Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Crazies. Then crumb blocks (3.5"), and snippets go into a bag for dog beds. Whew!

jmoore

I have a bin called “crumbs” but I’m pretty particular about what goes in it. If I’m tired of a fabric...it doesn’t get saved.

lynnie

my friend Jeanne makes wonderful scrap quilts. i give her boxes of scraps sometimes, and some of them are breathtaking. i have lots of fabric the size of fat quarters. i give her things that are scraps to me. she will cut to about 1 1/2" wide. amazing she has patience for this.

JoyjoyMarie

Me too - Sometimes I wonder if I just have a very bad hoarder gene, but I just love my scraps, and I have a hard time even using them!! I have a box with what I call "tidbits" (potato chip and smaller sizes), I have shoeboxes organized by color for "scraps" - odd pieces under 6 inches, I have underbed boxes with "smalls" - pieces from 6" to fat quarter sizes, again by color. Lastly I have a box of misc leftover pieced this and that -a trial square or some not quite right for the quilt squares, etc. What do I do with them??? Well, with the tidbits, I make fabric just by sewing them together randomly, then cutting them for my pattern. For instance, I made a mini wall quilt for my musician husband with hearts in red tidbit, purple tidbit, blue tidbit, yellow tidbit and orange tidbit. Each color represented a song we love: Heart and Soul, Deep Purple, Green in Blue, Solar Flair, and You are the Sunshine of my Life/ I recently have pulled out the pieced scraps and made them into 12 1/2 inch squares, quilt as you go, to make for charity. (See Little Island quilting blog for that charity project) I had a blast putting these together, as they have been marinating in their box for a few years now. I'm always into the middle sized pieces for this and that- appliques and scrappy projects. I love my fabrics!

JustAbitCrazy

A 1.5" strip is the smallest I save. I don't save narrower strips because I don't like or make string quilts. My scraps get cut/saved as strips or squares of various sizes, ala Leaders and Enders. It takes time to cut them all down, but so awesome to have a stack of already precision cut squares to use as Leaders and Enders and put into a planned scrap quilt.