Oh goodness, I would NEVER cut my larger pieces. You never know what the future brings and you may decide that you want to make a quilt using a focus fabric. That would require large some pretty large pieces. It's also easier to store larger pieces...simply fold them up and stack them on shelves.

Welcome to the board from Southern California!!!

Don't cut it yet!!!! Wait until you see a pattern you want to use, then just cut off however much you think you want to put in your project.

I wouldn't cut it either. I scrapbook and make cards too and I can't believe how many people cut up their paper before they even know what they're going to do with it. I can't do that. My luck I'd cut it and right away find something that requires a bigger piece.

I agree with everyone else. Only cut your fabric as needed. The scraps seem to "just happen"

Remember too that the scraps have to have a 1/4 inch sewing allowance. If you have a 2" square you will end up with a 1 1/2" block after sewn. I do all my cutting as I do each project.

Great advice! I went on a kick of washing things as I brought them home . Well I then decided to do some iron on transfers onto muslin or 100% cotton . Well needless to say all of the fabric I needed (yards and yards) had been washed. Now I wash as I need it. Except scraps I aquire , that's a nightmare.I had a garbage bag of scraps someone gave me in the basement ,basement flooded , what a terrible tangled mess I had after washing those!

I have no other organization advice, I hope to soon get mine organized. My youngest is moving out so I am putting shelves in his room to store my acres of accumulated stash!
(hopefully it will keep me from bawlin and squallin over him moving out)

i would leave your fabric in the pieces it is in! the cutting up your scraps kind of applies to 'scraps' the fabric left after you have cut what you need. so if you use a 1/2 yard piece, cut a couple 13" squares out of it...what is left...that's your scrap and that's what you would cut into your 'usable' pieces. but to start, it is so nice to have nice large pieces and sometimes you want those strips to be 42" long...if you cut all your 1/2 yards into fq's you will limit yourself with what you can do with them. so pre-washing, ironing, folding and stacking is enough 'scrap-therapy' for the time being. :thumbup:

I agree with ( most ) of the other posters......DO NOT CUT up all your yardage!! Plans change and what you think you will do today, may be totally different tomorrow. I've been stashing for years and years and years ( do not pre wash ) and when the cutting urge hits, I go to my yardage and cut off a 6 inch strip from a hundred or so pieces, then sub-cut those into smaller pieces to work with in a ''new'' scrappy quilt. I keep the majority of my larger pieces in tact and still have lots of ''scraps'' to work with. Beleive me, there will still be scraps left from the scraps I've just cut.....must be the nature of the beast....

jodi in leavenworth

Great idea! cutting a strip here and there!

I just ''found'' a Walmart bag full of over 200 differnt 12 inch pieces of ''scraps'' that I must have cut off the main yardage in my large stash and then set aside. It was like an early Christmas present........and is going to be turned into 10 minute blocks. Those things are the BOMB!!! I cut mine into 6 1/2 inch squares so they finish out to a nice 12 inch block. It takes 12 blocks to make a nice lap/baby size quilt and yes, you could cut and piece the top in an afternoon.

jodi in leavenworth