Scraps, ugh!!
 

So I used to sew and quilt several years ago, and obviously, at that point, I accumulated scraps. So I’m taking inventory of what I have now, and I pulled out my old scrap bag, and everything is a mess! I just thre pieces in there, and now they’re wrinkled and messy. I’m just curious as to how everyone handles their scraps. Do you throw them in a bag and deal with it when you need them? Do you fold them neatly and store them in a box??

Im so excited to get back into quilting (I made it to maybe competent beginner on hand sewing last time, my biggest piece was a nine block sampler I’m about seventy five percent done with), and I can’t wait to keep learning and mastering these skills thanks for your help!!

Search Bonnie Hunter, Quiltville. She is a specialized scrap quilter and has a regular system she uses. She has a web site and a blog.

Welcome to the board! I'd suggest that you check out Bonnie Hunter's site Quiltville. She's got scrap control ideas, and lots of free quilt patterns. :)
www.quiltville.blogspot.com

There are several threads on here on this very topic. Just search the key word "scraps" and you'll see a plethora of suggestions as to how we deal with them.

My smaller scraps (less than a FQ) and some of the larger pieces are sorted by color or type (30's, batiks, florals, etc.) and stored in plastic shoe boxes. They stay pretty flat and easy to find that way. The picture shows just a few of them. I just got an AccuQuilt, and the plan is to cut them into strips and squares. I'm not sure how I will organize the storage then.

Welcome to the Board! My first question is - do you like making scrappy looking quilts? What do you intend to make? For years I have saved scraps and finally ended up sending them to people that actually want them. Someone here showed they had one of those large pretzel containers - it's about the size of a 5 gallon water bottle - that she put her scraps into. When it got full then she did something with them. I now fill one and when it gets full I ask if someone wants it and the scraps go into a box and away it goes. Large left over pieces of fabrics I put on comic book cardboards and put them in bins. I separate the fabric by holidays, kids fabrics, sports (MLB & NFL), florals, and solids. Then I put them in color groups. My largest is Christmas and then Halloween - there is something about those fabrics that follow me home even when I have no idea what I am going to do with them. I also cut off the selvage edges and save those until I have enough worth sending along. If you haven't noticed - I have a real problem throwing things away.

Oh how I envy my US quilting sisters’ scraps problem! To have so much space and such a selection of fabrics to choose from must be wonderful!

My sewing room is small and my entire fabric ‘collection’ would probably fit into 10 of Duster’s shoe boxes.

Most of the things I make are for charity - I donate to Project Linus and a local cancer charity. Working with a limited budget I tend to only buy enough of a particular fabric to complete that project. Even so I still end up with small scraps that I can’t bear to throw away.

At the moment I’m on a mission to use up as many of my scraps as I can. Sometimes I just get bored with the fabrics that I have - then it’s time for a purge. I’m making cushions from fat quarters and yardage remnants - they will go to the local cancer charity. Any left-over pieces of binding I find will be added to a scrappy binding for future use. Small pieces from jelly rolls go into a box to make house blocks for a small child’s quilt. I’m also cutting fabric into 5 inch squares and will make HST from them. There might be enough for a colourful lap quilt. Those little pieces that are left over will be thrown out.

Happy sewing folks!

I can second Bonnie Hunter., Quiltville for her specialized scrap system. She makes sense out of scraps.
Kirstne

I too am on a mission to make a dent in my fabric, but the question is do I make 'basic', large pieces, patchwork quilts which leaves me with scraps that I cannot bear to bin, or do I try to work through the scraps that I have? All are for Project Linus at the moment.

When I began quilting I bought a lot of fat quarters (thinking of variety) and now a lot of them have become 'what was I thinking' fabrics. Surprisingly, they do disappear a little into scrap quilts but this leaves a stash of strings and squares which grow faster than I can use them. Friends have begun handing theirs to me as well!!

I have a whole room with two wardrobes and drawers for storage, the scraps are in size labelled boxes and some sizes now have more than one box. Before they are cut to size they are 'stored' in an open box under my cutting table.