scraps organization
 

I'm sure this has been asked 1,000 times regarding fabric organization, but...

when you have leftovers/scraps from a kit or specific fabric line, do you store those fabrics together, or do you put them with like colors in the general population of fabrics? Or some other way?

Thank you for any advice

For me, it depends upon how many scraps are left. If only a few, it goes in the scrap bin. Enough for another quilt and I like it, it stays together. Enough for another quilt but I really don't like it, free table at Guild.

I sometimes keep the scraps together in a zip lock bag then put the bag in one of my bins that are organized by color. I recently saw on one of Karen Brown's videos (Just Get it Done Quilts), that she will immediately makes a secondary quilt from the scraps if there are enough left overs from the first quilt. This by-passes storage of at least some of the scraps. I just finished a quilt this weekend and have plenty of scraps to give this a try. We will see if it is successful. I do have a long list of projects with deadlines that need attention. Do I have time to add another? We shall see.

If the scraps are from a kit or say a set of fabrics I pulled from my stash for a project, I'll keep them together until that project is completely done in case I still need some or if I decide to make a pillow or pillowcase to go with the quilt, then I can pull from the same fabrics and don't have to go searching for them in the many containers they might be in. Otherwise, I'll try to put them in the correct container then just to get them out of the way. Lately though I've been throwing them under the cutting table and then finally when I can't stand it any longer, I'll pull all the loose scraps out and put them where they belong. I've been getting so lazy lately. Plus my scrap containers are overflowing too so I hate to try to stuff even more into them.

If I have scraps that are bigger than a fat quarter but smaller than 1 yard then I wrap them around comic book boards and put them in my scrap drawers which are arranged by color. If they are a yard or more, then they go in my yardage drawers, also arranged by color. I almost never make the same quilt twice and since I like a scrappy quilt, it works for me to store my scraps and yardage that way rather than trying to keep designer's fabrics together.

Rob

My friend who is also a quilting teacher, says, "Every quilt has a baby". Make the baby and then distribute the leftovers (if any) in with your scraps.

Another way of saying use the scraps for a secondary quilt, but much more clever. Love it!

Great idea! I'm going to start doing this.

When I finish a quilt project I sew all of the smaller/awkward scraps together and then cut out hearts for the "I Found a Quilted Heart" program. I always end up with 6-8 hearts, sometimes many more, and I keep them in my car so as to always have hearts to distribute while I'm out and about. I keep one myself and now have a growing collection of hearts each representing quilts I've made/gifted. I also have a few family/friends who gladly take hearts to distribute themselves.

My cousin gladly takes scraps and sews blocks for charity quilts. Most go to her and we’re both happy for it.

Bonnie Hunter has a scrap user system: https://www.quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml