At what size is a scrap too small to keep?
 

I've been sewing/quilting for most of my life and I have tons of scraps of fabric. I applique so keep small pieces that I might use at some point. But, I'm getting buried in scraps. What size is too small for you all to keep?

I keep them all but don't keep them long. All scraps go in bin under my cutting table. When it's crammed full I empty it. Take the scraps to my guild's free table. The empty bin fills up again and I start over. I may use from it from time to time but never use all the scraps.

I have several limits and ideal on how small is to small. Small are pieces for DWR quilts. That is about as small as I go. On the other hand if I am doing a square 2 1/2" is as small as I go.

you get to decide! I know scraps smaller than 1 inch square are too small for me! Using a regular 1/4 inch seam on a square that size would leave you with a half inch square finished square I also would not keep strings less than 3/4 inch wide as that would leave me with a 1/4 inch finished string. But if you are doing raw edge applique, you could go smaller, or even smaller with something you are going to throw on another piece of fabric and stitch densely over to make your own background textured fabric. I generally call anything smaller than a fat quarter a scrap

2 1/2" square is my limit.

I tried a lot of different things over the years, from everything in a hamper to precut sizes/shapes. In the last decade I've decided to live by the motto that I can cut down, but I can't cut up and I don't like messing with lots of little bits, so the smallest I keep is 6.5" x something larger than a square. I am, however, a scrap quilter. A wide variety of fabric is my paintbox and I can justify quite a lot! Still you have to be able to find what you want/need.

When my yardage is getting narrower, it gets cut down to a 6.5" strip and those go into my small pieces box. Fat quarters and up go into yardage which is sorted by color or theme. I used to have other sizes but have shipped them all out. I met a very lovely crumb quilter on these boards who makes donation quilts for a variety of causes and I keep a flat rate box at my cutting area and put in things larger than an inch square. Periodically I ship the box to her and she gets to play quilt archaeologist digging through the strata of my scraps! I have a box ready to go but it got stuck at home here with me while we were down to one car -- but now there is more and I want to open it up and stuff more in...

Likewise, I have someone from here who gets my selvedges, sometimes I have some lovely lengths from my pieced backs.

I feel a lot better paying for postage than I do dealing with raggedy bits or throwing them away -- there are many solutions to the problem. Some people just make what i call planned quilts and so don't really have leftovers to worry about, what they have they stick in a ziploc bag and offer to quilt guilds or otherwise donate.

The size of a leaf or a petal. When I appliqué that’s what I need. But I recently got rid of a few plastic bins of scraps that weren’t batiks. I pretty much use batiks for all my quilting, except specifically requested stuff from grandkid quilt. One wanted Star Wars fabric and another one wanted Lego fabric.

1 1/2 inch square batiks only. 2 1/2 inch square prints and solids. I don't keep strips.

My limit is 1 1/4", just because I'm making a scrappy log cabin in that size.

I just eye it; if it looks too small to be of use, I throw it into the paper shopping bag I keep by my cutting table. However, I hadn't considered leaves and buds for applique, so I may have to modify my standard.