Matilda

I had gotten over whelmed with scraps, I bagged them up and gave them to a Linus group that makes quilts for children's hospitals. They take cotton and I had so much of it.

Peg-TX

You can always donate them to quilt guilds or quilt "Bee's". they usually make all kind of stuff from them.

annieshane

I sew with a small group at our church. We quilt mostly the lap quilt size for Hospice and Project Linus. We have been given 13 full size quilt tops which we will tie and bind. Those will go to hospice home-bound patients and the local fire departments for those who are burned out. We are grateful to have them because it will help so many and save us many hours. The tops were just sitting in a storage unit and the relative wanted to clear things out.

We have donated almost 100 lap quilts to hospice and 30 pillowcases to the 1M pillowcase challenge, not counting the quilts we have gifted our shut-ins, new mommies, and the 12 lap-quilts and 3 queen quilts we have made for our fund-raisers. We spent 3 months sewing all kinds of pot holders, hot mits, etc for our fund raisers and sponsored our youth who made 25 lap quilts for Hospice. Our youth made large woven fabric floor pillows for Bible School. We have spent less than $300. on supplies (mostly batting and polyfil) because all those fabrics were donated.

We will be able to quilt another 1-2 years with the fabrics we have been given. Some fabrics we would not have chosen for ourselves, but the youth opened our eyes to how great the unusual combinations can be. We learned so much from them!

I am really learning to love the scrappy quilts. Had to get over the fear of something not matching. Again, learned a lot from the youth.

Janice Thompson

Thats a wonderful outreach. I know the satisfaction when you can share God's talent and love.

tobylehnj

Try quiltville.com. Bonnie Hunter has a scrap saver system. As you cut for a quilt and you have left overs, you cut them it to the sizes most used. For her "Bargan Basement" quilt in her book, I cut 9 1/2 by 3 1/2 for the largest piece. Then cut the next largest, 5 x 3 1/3 then 3 1/2 squares, and 3 1/2 by 2, and so on. I put them into separate baggies and then I will have all the pieces ready to start sewing... I even have 1 1/2 inch squares and strips to make 3 1/2 inch blocks of 9 patches or strips to fill in. She says why use a plain block when you have leftover 3 1/2 inch or I just make them as I go with scraps.. It uses even the smallest pieces.

She makes many scrap quilts and has many on her web site free. Or there is always her "Crumb Quilts". I took a class with her at Hershey this past summer. I think she will be there again in 2012, but not 2011, she is booked already. Maybe you can catch her at a guild meeting. Check her web site for her schedule.

jaciqltznok

go to http://www.quiltville.com
Bonnie can show what to do with those scraps!

OR you can send them me...I LOVE scrappy!

Carron

Thank you for the suggestions.
Good going Matilda what a sweet thing to do.
I did send several boxes of materials to the Hopi Indians in Arazonia. They make wonderful items with materials then sell them.
Tobylehnj, my you are so organized with the scraps. Bet you turn out really great quilts.
At this point, I haven't any scraps to speak of but I shall check out Bonnie Hunter.
Thanks again.

Gabrielle's Mimi

I cut all my small pieces in 2.5 x 2.5" squares and sort into plastic shoeboxes by batik, Christmas and all others. I went to an open house at my LQS yesterday and they have classes called "Scrap Therapy" where you cut all your scraps to a few certain sizes, place them in boxes and then when you have enough, you buy their patterns for scrap quilts. I don't save anything smaller than 2.5". There are lots of good scrap quilt books at JoAnn's and on Amazon.com (I buy used).