Save those "tiny" leftover scraps
 

I was working on a project where there were a lot of pretty pieces of fabric cut away and not used in the project. What a shame to throw them away but some were only 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces. (Too small to do anything with but still hated to throw them away). Then the lightbulb came on. I started even cutting larger chunks into tiny pieces with the rotary cutter (like mosaic pieces in all kinds of odd shapes but small). Then I layed a 12" X 12" Piece of fusible interfacing down with the sticky side up and started laying these TINY pieces onto the fusible, starting in the middle of the fusible. I layed one piece in the center and surrounded it with contrasting pieces all around until I covered the whole piece of fusible. Make sure everything touches and no fusible shows through. THEN press over them with an iron to keep them in place on the fusible. Then I did free motion zig zagging all around the pieces to secure them. (You could also use your fancy machine stitches but would take a little longer). Once they are all zig-zagged in place......you can use your new 12" piece of handmade fabric to make a wallet, or embellish a purse or tote bag, or on a pocket, or even cut the 12" square in half to use front and back on a purse, or on another project for the center of a pillow with borders etc. They are so pretty and have lots of uses on other projects for embellishment. Have to add, the process was so much fun arranging the pieces onto the fusible like a puzzle.

Picture, please?

Or you could use them to make fabric beads for embellishment

would love to see a picture of what you are talking about! :)

I would love to see a picture.

what a neat idea. I need to make pillows for my camper and this would make a great pillow. I would also love to see a picture.

sounds very interesting

Instead of zigzagging, another idea I've seen is to put a piece of tulle, netting, organza or angelina over the fused pieces, then just free motion thru the whole sandwich. I would also love a picture!

If I understand what you're saying.....I'm thinking mug rugs!

That is how Snippet small quilts are made.

I throw all small pieces away. Not worth sewing to me, waste of thread and electricity. I have too much fabric to worry about small pieces. Just me.

I too have trouble throwing even small pieces away. I am glad I read this today, I need a back for a scarp quilt and this is what I am going to try. Thanks.

meeetoooo! I was cleaning up my sewing room today and had trouble throwing pieces out I'd be brave and say I don't really need it but then I hover over the trash can my hands won't release it lol but good idea think I'll give it a try think I saw something like this long while ago where you put a layer of tulle also

I save every tiny piece of scrap and when I get enough to make a pet bed for our local Humane Society, I give it the bed to them. I've been working on a confetti quilt and will be pinning the tulle over and quilting it by this weekend.

Don't for get to use your threads too. some of use just can part with our fabrics and threads. love makeing fabric.

Hi bearisgray.....Uhmmm....did you happen to notice, where it says how many blog entries.....It was number "1". I was not even sure I would know how to post a blog. tee hee. I wanted to share what I did cause it was so cute but I don't even know how to put a picture on here or how to even take a picture with the camera to transfer to the computer. I am a newbie, still learning how to get around on here but I have learned so much from all of you and I just had to share the tiny scrap project I did. I had to teach a class at the American Sewing Guild Sewing Retreat in Sebring last month and I taught the stitch and slash pillow and that was how I ended up with all the pretty discarded pieces. So the little mosaic, or puzzle like piece was born....and all the ladies in the class went bonkers over it and couldn't wait to make one up for themselves. They had all kinds of ideas to use it for. Some one said here about making pillows for her camper. That would be awesome. Putting tulle over them and FM on it would give a totally different look, pretty, but not what I was trying to achieve here. But is was so much fun arranging the little pieces all over the fusible. (And pressing keeps them attached to the fusible.) P.S. now I have to figure out how to post a picture. haha

I am so glad there are others out there like me. I hate to throw anything away that I could use to embellish things. I like your idea with using threads too. I save all those snips of thread when using the embroidery machine and add some metallics to them too. Thanks.

Actually, I didn't notice the number of entries you had made - anyway - welcome to the Quilting Board.

I agonize having to throw away scraps, but force myself to do so if they aren't at least 2 1/2" square (or larger). Your idea sounds interesting, but a little too much work for me (I'm a homeschooling mom). Would love to see a picture, though!

interesting fun idea...talk about a scrappy rag quilt!....I just might try that!.....oh.....pic please!!!!

Sandrea, what a neat idea to use small pieces of cloth, no matter how small they are! I have used fine tulle as a top layer for a couple projects, and it is great for FMQ, too. Thanks for sharing your information. Now and then it is soothing to do a fun project "just because." :thumbup:

This sounds great. Show us a picture please..

[QUOTE=Sandrea I had to teach a class at the American Sewing Guild Sewing Retreat in Sebring last month and I taught the stitch and slash pillow and that was how I ended up with all the pretty discarded pieces.

Sandrea, I am curious to know..........what is a stitch and slash pillow? Inquiring minds want to know.:)

I think of you guys every time I sweep off the dining room table and throw an armful of scraps into the trash. As interesting as this kind of thing sounds, I just don't have it in me to save everything. Too much stuff actually is stressful for me. This does sound like a really fun project to do at a workshop or something. Perhaps in a few years when I retire and have more time to call my own, I'll change my tune

I"m not so sure you would want it for the back of a large quilt. By the time you layer the snippets onto fusible, and all the dense quilting, I would think it would have a tendency to become quite stiff. I'm not so sure it would be a comfy cozy quilt. Just a thought. I think it is more for decorative, or things like bags. Joannes has such a big selection of the tulles, some even with sparkles. I've seen some art pieces like that, they are pretty. You could add shells and buttons or beads. I saw a mermaid one somewhere. It was beautiful.

I save tiny pieces and sometimes I throw large pieces away. My mood goes from thrifty to get it out of my sight each time I clean my sewing room.

I have been sewing my small scraps but without the foundation...it's called "making fabric" but most of the time I discard anything 1/2"

What a great idea.

My hands don't hover, I actually drop it and then pick it out again. LOL I save anything 1/2 inch or bigger. The smaller the piece, the smaller I make my seams. On a strip 1/2 inch wide, I make 1/8 inch seams and still have 1/4 inch of beautiful fabric showing. These small pieces have to be really eye-catching though. Not too much blah stuff. I have enough of that right now to make a few crumb quilts - - - next year! ! !

[QUOTE=piepatch;6091449][QUOTE=Sandrea I had to teach a class at the American Sewing Guild Sewing Retreat in Sebring last month and I taught the stitch and slash pillow and that was how I ended up with all the pretty discarded pieces.

Sandrea, I am curious to know..........what is a stitch and slash pillow? Inquiring minds want to know.:)[/QUOTE]

Our LQS owner did a demo on stitch and slash this spring. She laid out a piece of foundation fabric, (12 to 18 inches square) piled her "lint" onto it, added metalic and colored threads, making sure that everything was cut into small pieces. (Her pile of stuff looked to be almost an inch thick.) She put a piece of fabric over all that, right side up, pinned it well, and sewed lines every which way until a lot of it was covered in sewing. Then she slashed the top fabric (I think some of it was cut away) between the stitchings, and pulled and trimmed the stuff that now "birthed" itself. She used it for a pillow and the front of a purse. It was very beautiful.

Love your "can do" spirit Sandrea! It sounds fun and the end results must be awesome!
Also - welcome to the QB!
Here is a set of great instructions on how to post pictures:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t174063.html
You can submit hundreds of posts and photos and never make even one blog entry.
Sorry I can't help you get the pictures from your camera to your computer.

Thanks Buzzin, for the information.....I will try to figure out how to take a picture and post it. DH said he would give me a hand with posting it if I take the picture. So many of you have asked to see a picture and I was at a loss, being so new to QB so I don't know too much about maneuvering around on here. But thanks Buzzin, I will check it out.

You scrap savers (raises hand!) might be interested in a project called "Bottled Rainbows". It's based on a ticker-tape quilt.
Details here: http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2011/...ape-quilt.html

My Bottled Rainbow blocks here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/3058387...7633793807127/

I have them together and sandwiched; it's waitin' for the quiltin' now!

Yes, those are confetti quilts and the technique has been around for several years.

[QUOTE=piepatch;6091449][QUOTE=Sandrea I had to teach a class at the American Sewing Guild Sewing Retreat in Sebring last month and I taught the stitch and slash pillow and that was how I ended up with all the pretty discarded pieces.

Sandrea, I am curious to know..........what is a stitch and slash pillow? Inquiring minds want to know.:)[/QUOTE]

Hello piepatch....I got the information for STITCH AND SLASH, from the Craftsy.com site. You take 4 fat quarters and layer them on top of each other with the prettiest one on the bottom and a plain one on the top. (Usually all batiks or prints). Then turn them over, and on the bottom fabric, draw lines (I used like a tic tac toe lines only I made them CURVY LINES) Then in between each of those sections trace around a glass or a cup and make a circle inside each of those "tic tac toe" squares. You can draw everything with a pen and it won't show later because it is on the bottom. Then "on the bottom side" sew straight stitching, on all the lines and cicles. You must use a thread in the bobbin that is a contrast to the top fabric because you need to be able to see where the stitching is on top when you turn it over. Then when you turn it right side up you will have 4 fat quarters sandwiched together and you will see where you sewed those lines on the bottom side. NEXT STEP: You use a seam ripper It has to be VERY SHARP!! A cheapie one won't do. I used a Clover (Pd. $5.99 for it) and it was really sharp. Then the fun begins. (MAKE SURE when you are ready to rip, that you are ripping from the "TOP" and NOT the bottom where you drew the lines with a pen.)Next: Rip out JUST THE TOP LAYER , inside the circles, and inside the tic tac toe squares. Or you can rip just every other one. Whatever you decide looks good to you. Next: Being ever so careful, you get down into the 2nd layer and rip out inside the cirles and squares but leave a little bit of a border from the lst layer so you can see both layers showing. Then rip as much or as little as what looks good to you. NEXT: Finally you go to the 3rd layer and do the same. Just rip out what ever you don't want or leave some you like showing. DO NOT CUT THE 4th LAYER, that is the bottom of your piece. It is your own creation and totally up to you how much or little you want to rip away. One of my students could not handle the seam ripper since it may not have been sharp enough so she used a pr. of scissors to cut the pieces out, having clean edges, and it was still very beautiful. The seam ripper gives it a more rustic or fuzzy look because of the ripped edges. The trick is....be careful not to cut into the next layer when you are ripping. Then if you desire, you can couch pretty yarns, or threads or trims over the stitching that still shows on the top of your pillow top. (You can add borders if you like and make into a pillow). THEN....this is how you end up with lots of beautiful little tiny scraps...but you can use them like I mentioned in this article, as an accent piece for the room, or use in a purse or tote etc..

[QUOTE=maviskw;6091733]Hi maviskw...I explained the stitch and slash above to piepatch. But just wanted to let you know, I really liked your idea too. That sounded interesting to me and I would like to try that too. Thanks for sharing. It is really neat how one person comes up with an idea and the next person adds to it, or dreams up another idea based on that one. It is great that we can all share these ideas in our heads.

I save mine and give them to those willing to make pet beds. To much fabric to worry about all those scraps.

I liked this tutorial: http://oxfordimpressions.blogspot.co...spy-quilt.html

Sandrea, very good use of small pieces of fabric. I use my thread scraps to make "fabric" for things like purses, book covers, etc...