I love this forum and now want to take advantage of the knowledge from so many of you. I am a novice quilter who wants to take my remants (leftovers up to a yard) and do something with them rather than putting them into a bin where they sit and wait for a future project. Any ideas? Should I cut them into 4 or 5 inch squares? Make some rectangles? Sew the many 2 inch strips together? Help! I don't want them getting lost and I think it will help to create a great scrappy quilt as well. I need help to get ideas and started.

Hi and welcome to the board from Iowa. How you cut them will depend on what pattern you might be looking at. To me perusing patterns is fun so take some time to browse (smile).

Go here: http://www.quiltville.com/

Bonnie has the best ideas in the world on what to do with your stash plus lots of free patterns. Have fun browsing her site :D

I also am a newbie and enjoying all this information. I try to use any extra block and fabric on the backing of the quilt. It sometimes saves money by having to purchase less fabric for the backing. It can also be fun. One of Eleanor Burns (Quilt in a Day) staff quilter is Sue Bouchard who is well known for using up her leftovers for her backings. Just a thought. GOOD LUCK !!!

when I have pcs from projects left over I cut them into -starting with 8 inch sqs and then as the pc gets smaller I cut 5 in sqs or 3 in sqs for a scrap quilt. and have sm rubbermaid bins to store them. I work on them in between the bigger quilts.

I don't pre cut anything, till it's needed mainly because if I need a patch for an applique may need more than a strip size or block amount also easier to measure what I have to see if it can be used in one chunk.
Know some do though. Extra blocks or srtips get put into a basket for future use on a scrappy.
Do what's right for you, your space etc... Enjoy

I cut up all my leftovers into 5", 4", 3" and 2.5" squares and 1.5-2.5" strips. Whatever I can get out of the 'tovers. I also generally have a scrappy quilt from this collection started that I work on at UFO nights at my guild. If I make a mistake it's no biggie.

I'd also suggest reading Bonnie Hunter's site.
LOTS of info and free scrap patterns.
Pick a quilt you want to make and start making the blocks that are in it.
Check out the scrappy quilts on this QB too.

Will second this site. I am using an AccuQuilt cutter at LQS next week to cut a boatload following Bonnie's guidelines. It took about an hour and a half to look through her free patterns and determine which two I would make using the cut pieces.

I cut scraps into the largest size they will fit.
Sewing with Nancy once did a scrap quilt called Scrap Happy using different size strips to make 6 inch blocks then put 4 togather to make a 12 in block.
It is so much fun to do.
The pattern is out of print but the video is on QNNTV.

My computer is taking way to long to post. Sorry to double post didnt think it took.

Can you please try again? Is it free?

QNNTV is 24 dollars a year or 29 if you join quilters club.
It used to be free till Fons and Porter bought it.
It has a very large library of videos from most of the major well known quilters.
Its great for beginners, you can learn alot especially if you are the kind that needs to see quilts made. Im visual and that is how I learned to quilt.
Eleanor Burns has a lot of videos on her website.
http://quiltinaday.com and that is free.

Your best bet is to first come up with a plan for what you want to make. Otherwise, it's pointless cutting up all the leftovers.

Find one or two scrappy projects that you like. Cut them to fit those projects. Lots of people DO like using 2.5 inch strips, but I prefer squares and triangles myself or preformed shapes like apple cores, hexagons, or log cabin strips.

i do not precut my leftover scraps. i wait until i know what project i will be using them in and what size they need to be cut to.