Scrap Organization: Afraid I will cut and then regret!
 

I want to organize. I really do. And I don't even have my fingers crossed behind my back!

My fear is I will take a semi-decent size chunk of fabric, say 4-6" and cut it into either 2.5" triangles, or squares, or whatnot, and then find out later on I need a bigger piece.

Do any of you "regret" cutting your stash into usable shapes, only to find out you should have left it be?

I think that is what holds me back as well. I know Bonnie Hunter has an awesome scrap savers system and it seems to work well for a lot of people, but I think along the same lines as you do :) What if I needed a 3" square and I cut it all into 2.5"?

LOL... I guess I wasn't much help, but wanted to let you know that you are not alone, and I think the best solution for us is to organize by color, not by size.

I cut mine into the biggest size possible. So if the scrap is 4-6", cut a 5 or 6 inch square. You can always cut them down later if you need to. I have never regretted cutting stuff up. It saves so much time when you are ready to put together a project. If I had to stop and cut a bunch of small squares when I was ready to go on something, I would probably just find something else to do!

That is why I don't precut any of my scraps. When I have a project, I pull them out, choose what fabrics I want to use and then start cutting.

my system looks like Tartans. It works well for me.

I have very limited storage space for my stash, so what I do is keep any scrap that is fat quarter size or larger ruler folded or folded on comic boards in my storage units that are for yardage. If it's smaller than a fat quarter, but there are multiple pieces, then I wrap them together around a comic board and they go in a drawer that's for scrap pieces I don't want to cut. Anything that is smaller than a 10" square gets cut into the largest size I can get out of it. I store these precuts in their own storage unit by size and value. So 10" squares are separated into 3 piles, light medium and dark. Same with 5" squares, 3.5" squares and 2" squares. I also store some 2.5" strips if I have a scrap that is longer than 10 inches. By cutting my scraps, I have been able to maximize what little storage space I have and I find that I am more likely to use them that way.

Everyone is different, what works for me might not be a good fit for your way of working.

Rob

I cut my scraps into the largest size I can use...such as, a 6" piece would be 6" square or rectangle/ strip. A 10" square stays a 10" square. Smaller pieces or odd shaped pieces are cut into the largest size I can get. I cut squares, rectangles and strips. I do not cut odd shales ( triangles etc) until I need them then I cut them out of what ever square is the right size to get them. It does matter what kind of quilts you make. If I made lots of trip around the world Tyler quilts I might cut everything into 3" or 2 1/2" squares. Or if I made many bars rail fence quilts I would cut everything into bricks or strips. I cut my scraps into sizes I know I will use, or be able to cut needed shapes out of.

Same here. You just may need that piece to be that size. I have a boxes of colors. The smaller pieces are on top then graduate to larger whether square or not. I have finally found a way to use my skinnier strip stash. I've started 'locker hooking" We'll see what happens but DH has been playing around with it also.

I'm not a big fan of making Bonnie Hunter quilts and have decided to keep my small scraps just as they are. I do occasionally go through my junk scrap bin (it's different from my good fabric scrap bin) and use my GO cutter to cut either strips or whatever I have in GO dies, sometimes it's large triangles, sometimes it's 5" charm squares. I keep my good fabric together and have went back many times to my favorite pieces to cut smaller pieces. I would hate to cut it up, I just won't do it.