Organizing the leftover batting
 

I spent a large portion of yesterday sorting through leftover bits of batting and piecing them together. By the looks of the variety of pieces, I've bought every type of batting known to man :)

Of course, most was not stored in it's original packaging so I was guessing about fiber content. I pieced together based on my best guess of fiber content and thickness. I now have several square pieces large enough to use for good sized wall hangings, baby play mats or small baby quilts. Some of the small pieces I used to make practice sandwiches with muslin.

It feels good to get something organized. I do need to measure each pieced batting and label them with the measurement so I can easily tell if something will work for a new project.

Next to actually making a quilt, organizing my sewing space is my next favorite thing to do.

I'm not a big organizer. Partly because every time I go on an organizing binge, I can't find anything afterwards :D And partly because since I still work full time and most of my sewing is weekends, if I spend a whole day organizing I usually won't get to sew.

I have my batting in my grandmother's trunk on the upstairs landing outside my sewing room and I just dig thru. Of course, I haven't quilted as much as many of you so I also don't have as many batting scraps.

I try to use my pieces on the next quilt so they dont pile up.

I never seem to have enough left over for the next project. I just end up with scraps.

I also work full time but feel the need to get some organization going. I'm never going to use these scraps if they are stuck in different places and I don't know what's what. I'll just say "oh never mind, go buy a new package of batting".

When I finish a quilt and I cut the extra batting off, I measure it, roll it up and pin a paper with the size on it. Some times it is a long strip of 108" by 15", then I have a quilt that measure 100" and my batting is 93" wide then I add the 15" and I don't have to buy a king size batting.

I like to know the size before I start unrolling all the extra batting to see what I need.

I like this idea.

That's what I should be doing. Otherwise I spend a lot of time rummaging through a big pile of scraps and trying to figure out if it fits.

I'm making mock cathedral window denim quilts right now and have pulled all the scraps of batting I can find. I cut them into 4 1/4" squares. I've cleaned out a lot of spaces where the batting was stored!

Good idea PatPitter...that way your batting pieces are ready for your next project need.