Half Yard Pieces of Fabric
 

Been organizing my stash and putting everything over a half yard piece on comic boards. Noticed I have a lot of half yard pieces of fabric. Not too many patterns call for this amount. Besides cutting them all up for scrap quilts, how else can I use them. Most of my fabric is organized by color. So far, I am folding the half yard pieces as I fold fat quarters and lining them up in drawers in my sewing room. Everything else, will be lined up on shelves in cabinets in the basement where I have my batting. Need ideas for use of these pieces.

I did the same until I realized how much space all those comic boards were taking up. Then I removed the boards and stand my material on it's side, to look like books. I fold all pieces smaller than 1 yard into the size of fat quarters. My whole top shelf in my cabinet is for smaller pieces. Just hold onto them and you can use them for scrap quilts! You'd be surprised just how little you'll need for scrappy quilts!

Organized scrap quilts... use a variety of 'reds' when the pattern calls for red and so on..

otherwise, small baby quilts and applique or even "Fat quarter" quilt patterns..

I would use them in fat quarter patterns. I find most of those quilts are like lap size and I prefer something slightly larger so you can enlarge FQ patterns. Or join a FQ swap on the QB or somewhere else. Cut those half yards in half and you have two FQ, one to swap and one to keep.

I finished a quilt about a month ago called Southern Comfort. I used 1/2 yard pieces for the body of the quilt. I used tone on tone cream colored for the non- color area. Like you I seemed to have lots of less than a yard pieces. I like this pattern a lot for the bigger not quite scraps .
http://charismascorner.com/?p=13884

I have a book called "Six Halves Make a Whole" by The Quilt Branch. It has 6 projects using 6 half yard cuts. Some really pretty quilts in that book and a great way to use 1/2 yard cuts of fabric.

I am always looking for fabrics to match a new fabric I have bought and so many times I turn to the half yards to use with them. They have come in handy for so many patterns that I need a little more than a fat quarter. When ordering bundles I usually order half yard's instead of fat quarters.

I'm using several half yard cuts for a 5 inch charm square style quilt. I get 24 squares from a half yard.

Several of the Jaybird patterns by Julie Honeyman call for half yards. I think Chopsticks does, as well as Ballerina. Another quilt pattern designer who seems to call for half yards fairly often is JEnny Pedigo, with Sew kind of Wonderful and quick curve ruler designs.

For storing, I don't use the boards on less than 1 yd pieces. Instead, I fold them with my 4" ruler. They stack neatly on the shelf (until I pick thru them!)

I like to use them for the back of quilts. On the back of the log cabin in my avatar pic, I've got them in a brick wall type layout. I think for this quilt I cut into 16x32 rectangle and used the rest for strips & scraps.
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Very pretty use of those 1/2 yds. they always come in handy. Sue

Bargellos and Log Cabins! I'm a fan of both, and they use a few strips of a lot of fabrics!

A good scrappy will use up some of that. How about a nice braid or a Boxed Squares pattern?

I seem to use lots of half yard cuts-just the right amount for 3-4 blocks. The last one I made with eight 1/2 yard cuts was whispering lace in the book called Modern Neutrals by Amy Ellis.

I have a book I love with quick pretty and easy quilts for when you need one in a hurry...book is called 6 halves make a whole, using.....you guessed it, 6 half yard cuts!! I've made several quilts quickly for gifts using this book!!

Check out the book "Six halves make a whole lot more". I believe there are several in the series.

Marcy J.; visit Nancy Zeiman's blog she has a video with a guest where they used large blocks to great quilts forgot the name of the video; but it is on her blog. Hope this helps -Vontina (wbfrog)

Cut them into strips and then you can use jelly roll patterns!

Check out the Take 5 pattern. It has 2 sizes, 1 of which uses 5 - 1/2 yd pcs. for the body of the 48 x 60 quilt.
Good size for baby or kid.

I store mine in clear totes and use them in small projects....

I have discovered that I have a lot of half yard pieces too. I'm going to look for that half yard book.

I found this older quilt along that calls for 1/2 yard cuts.
week 1 supplies
week 2 cutting the fabric
week 3 block instructions
week 4 assembling the top
week 5 and 6 quilting the quilt
week 7 binding