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Since many of my smaller scraps are starched, I find I prefer to store them in the 13"square flat boxes that I get at Costco (I think they are for scrap books). I don't have to fold them a lot, they lay flat and I can sort them by color. I use the same bins to store my 10 and 12" squares.
QuiltnLady1
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Possibly you could also sort by warm or cool, or lite and dark, easier to find when looking for a piece.Originally Posted by Rhonda K
I like scrappy quilts, so anything under a FQ cuts cut down into the biggest usable scrap sizes possible. I also like to put every last bit of fabric to use.
If the piece is big enough, I cut some 12-1/2" and 6-1/2" pieces I can use in the future to piece together for big block scrappy backings or use to make small blocks for my Dear Jane and 365 quilts. Then I start cutting 5" squares and 5"x2-1/2" blocks for some nickel quilts I would like to make once I get my UFOs under control. I cut squares in 3-1/2", 3", 2-1/2" and 2". Anything leftover either goes in the crumb box, the strippy box or gets chopped into confetti for pet bed filler.
Because I like random scrappies, I sort by size and not by color. I keep them an Ikea Trofast dresser. The drawers are actually plastic bins that slide out completely, so they are easily carried over to the machine when I need to use them.
Zozee, I'm impressed. They look good, functional, and easy to find what you are looking for.
To many quilts, not enough wine.
Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900QCP, Special Edition
Vingtage Dressmaker 7000 Heavy Duty
I always get a kick out of decisions of what size to keep and what to throw out. I go back to a memory of someone who had saved a ball of string, little pieces tied together, labeled: String: too short to save.
BattleAxe - a ball of string with pieces tied together - wow that's being thrifty!
I am also battling the "small scrap syndrome"I have so many and a friend gave me a large garbage bag full. I've used about half of the ones in the bag but I found that as I rummage through this huge tangled mess, looking for a similar patterned scrap or color, I was getting frustrated and wasted lots of time - - LOL and there would be a huge mound on the floor that needed cleaning up
I couldn't deal with the seek and find method any longer. I dumped everything out and sorted into groups of the same pattern and color. I pressed them and after they were cooled so that there was no condensation put them into plastic sandwich bags - I know that plastic bags are not good for fabric but it was a mess. I then put them according to color into the shoe box size plastic bins from the $ store. It takes up very little room and easier to sort through and find what I want. I don't have the room to neatly put in open bins or lay on shelves.
Has anyone had bad experiences using plastic bags or bins? Should I get rid of the plastic?
Deb
Oh, this made me laugh and cry at the same time. Too short to save, but saved it anyway. We found stuff like this when we went through my mother's stash after she passed. One bag was literally labelled: "Pieces of elastic too short to use". Why she didn't throw them out, I don't know. At least she hadn't sewn them all together in one long piece!
Anything too big for me to cut into strips and squares (someone said about the size of a fat 8th) I fold to the same size as my FQs and put them back into the clear shoe boxes I keep my FQs in. They are always so thin when folded that I can easily tell they are only very small pieces.
Smaller than that and they go into an open basket I keep near my cutting board. The basket is about 10 X 10 and when it's full, I TRY to make time to stop and cut the scraps into 2 1/2" squares. Anything smaller goes into crumb baskets sorted by color. (So far I've only made one crumb quilt, but it was such fun I know I will make more.)
www.makeminepatchwork.etsy.com
"Piecin' a quilt's like livin' a life...The Lord sends us the pieces, but we can cut 'em out and put 'em together pretty much to suit ourselves, and there's a heap more in the cuttin' and the sewin' than there is in the caliker...I've had a heap of comfort all my life making quilts, and now in my old age I wouldn't take a fortune for them." (Eliza Calvert Hall, Aunt Jane of Kentucky)
I think the key is to allow the pieces in the bags to breathe...don't shut them up tight is how I do it.BattleAxe - a ball of string with pieces tied together - wow that's being thrifty!
I am also battling the "small scrap syndrome"
I couldn't deal with the seek and find method any longer. I dumped everything out and sorted into groups of the same pattern and color. I pressed them and after they were cooled so that there was no condensation put them into plastic sandwich bags - I know that plastic bags are not good for fabric but it was a mess. I then put them according to color into the shoe box size plastic bins from the $ store. It takes up very little room and easier to sort through and find what I want. I don't have the room to neatly put in open bins or lay on shelves.
Has anyone had bad experiences using plastic bags or bins? Should I get rid of the plastic?
Don't worry spider.
I keep house
casually.
---Basho
Nothing's too small...I love miniatures.
This sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, lol (says the woman who uses any piece of yarn that is over 12")
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