Sorting Scraps by Color
 

I do a lot of improvise quilting and like to sort my scraps by colors. Recently I took a huge bin of scraps and divided them into their color families to have ready for my next improv quilt projects. Making scrap quilts in these palettes results in beautiful coordinated quilts. In these bags are blues, oranges/browns, greens, and black/grey neutrals.

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I am enjoying the QB and all of the interesting topics here. :)

Melanie, I hope you are planning on using your scraps soon. Plastic bags are not the best way to store fabric, although it does look like your scraps are loosely packed. They need a little air circulation, and be sure you keep them out of the sun!

This is a great idea! Gonna have to give it a go!

Great idea to put like colors together. Thanks for the tip.

These are perforated, recycled bags that quilt battings came in.

that's good so the air can circulate.

I sort my tonal by colors and the rest get sorted by type of fabric such as floral, repro, batiks, kids prints, plaids, etc.

When I sorted out the scraps I realized how much blue I use! I also like to use a lot of neutrals with my scraps.

I sort by size. That way if I need say, 2.5" blues, then I look in my 2.5" box and my 5" box and easily pick out the blues. I find it saves time measuring to see if the piece will be big enough and it also saves on waste as I don't cut a 3.5" piece down to 2.5" and waste 1". I know, I know, it sounds tedious, but it works for me :o)

just got home from guild meeting with Vicky Beasley as the program presenter on scrap quilts. She had some amazing quilts and rarely buys more than backing--which she doesn't like to piece. She uses the same system--color, then type/genre, then width of strips.

She also said that since purchasing an accuquilt cutter that things have really gotten speedy for her.

I sort by color also and keep mine in a plastic storage box (one for darks and one for lights). It's fun to rummage through all the colored bits.

Your scraps look so pretty sorted by color. Love what I see of the greens!

I try to store fabric scraps flat in Pizza boxes. If they are used boxes, I line the box with freezer paper. I don't like to go to scraps and have to iron them before I can cut them. My strips are in a candle box: long and thin. They don't get wrinkled that way.

I recently sorted by color as well. I have mine in photo boxes so they are out of the light and the interior is acid-free. I never realized how many I had until I sat down and sorted. Now I see shy some say the scraps breed overnight.

I prefer a more controlled scrappy but hadn't found anything that really jumped out to me until I saw a block by Elizabeth Hartman called Mod Mosaic (http://www.ohfransson.com/all-projec...c-quilt-blocks). They look really fun to make. She offers guidelines on her process but leaves it rather open so people can modify based on available scraps and size preference.

I like the pizza box idea a lot. I have a old china cabinet that I store fabric in and the pizza boxes would work well in it. I could label each color on the edge of the box. Thanks for the tip!

I like her scrappy style with the thin sashing. Thanks for the link.

Thank you for posting this link! I really like her style and so nice she has provided a pattern/method.