maminstl

If it's less than a 1 1/2 inches, I generally pitch them. The thing about these scraps is that they multiply like crazy, so no matter how much you throw out - there is always plenty more. I am not a saver by nature, and just don't like to accumulate too much stuff, so I throw out a lot that others would find a use for.

Mariposa

1" strips or pieces can go towards an Ohmigosh quilt, selvages can make cute items, and rest into pet beds or for the birds. Hope the strips and scraps find a home other than the trash~

Diannia

I sometimes use long thin strips to tie my plants to poles with...

Jeanne S

If they are less than 1 1/2" wide, I toss them.

Onebyone

Unless you want to be overloaded with scraps you have to start letting go. Save them if you feel you must and put in old pillowcase. Sew shut and give to the local animal shelter or vet to use. Once they get wet or too dirty they can be tossed. At least the scraps serve a purpose before getting tossed.

Shander

If the piece is long enough I have used them to tie a quilt together for gift giving.... roll the quilt up and tie it up with the salvage piece.

nena

My sister kept a ton of all different size strips from 1/2 in wide to 3in wide . She got sick so I put Made it for her. This sis how it turned out. Still have to quilt it for her.

mckwilter

I save all the threads through the autumn and winter, then spread them outside for the birds.

ckcowl

I save all strips down to 1/2" wide. They are great for locker hooking rugs, wrapping clothesline for baskets & bowls and twisting together to create your own colorful ( yarn/rope) to crochet, braid, stitch into all kinds of great items. If they are over 1" wide they are used for quilting.

mac

I know a lot of people that toss their strips and I am right behind them asking for the them. I love to do scrap quilts and I really hate to read patterns, but I find that sewing the strips together is really quite fun. You can make the blocks any size you want and keep them until you have enough to sew together to make a quilt.

I took a class from one of the Piece O'Cake authors (I forgot her name, sorry) and she said that she makes her bias tape before she starts her quilt so that she will be sure to have that yardage available to her at the end of the quilt, instead of cutting up the yardage first and finding out "Ooops!" not enough fabric left to make the bias tape. After cutting the bias tape, she rolls it up flat and uses a straight pin to anchor it. That way she doesn't have to re-iron it.

I started doing this with my strip scraps. My brother likes to eat the peanut butter filled pretzels that he gets from Costco and I take those bottles pull off the labels and wash them. Now I have a gallon-size bottle that has a lid and I just fill them up. I can see the colors easily, they stay ironed, are ready to use at a moments notice and they stay organized. If you can keep your scraps organized somehow, I think that is half the battle of being able to use them and not have a rats nest to deal with when you need them.

The salvage strips are also collected by me, because I love their color dots and the words on them. I collected salvage strips for decades, thinking that if you couldn't use them because they are more tightly woven, why couldn't you use all of them together? After all, everything would be tightly woven and they would all shrink the same. I started saving them in the mid-seventies and had a couple of big boxes of them. One day my husband was helping me reorganize my sewing room and we mis-communicated and he thought when I said they were scraps that I meant for him to toss them. When I found out, I was really sad and it made it even sadder when quilting books started coming out with ideas on what to do with the scraps. But, never fear, I now have them in the gallon bottles. I'll be sure to use these salvages right away and not just collect them like before.

So, any of you out there that want to throw out your strip scraps that are 3/4" and bigger, you know there is a home for them here.