illinois

I don't cut anything down. If I did, I know it would be 1/4" short of what I need! Leftover lengths are folded into the piece that is left. It is big enough to find in the stack that way.

bearisgray

Sort of a related question -

After cutting off/out from the main piece of furniture abric cwhat was needed for the project - do you tidy the end ( or side) xo that the piece is an easier to fold rectangle or do you keep the piece as intact as possible?

Iceblossom

Good question, Bear... when I went through my trials of different things, I cut off all raggedy ends and made string projects, leaving what was left ready to go from either side. But like Illinois mentioned, doing that meant sometimes I couldn't use that trimmed cut in a project, but the piece I could have cut from the widest side of the trim could have been used.

Now, I do clip off the random threads so the ragged edge is neat, and I have the cut side, can tell apart easily because of the fuzzy stuff on the ragged size. When it gets down to my "small" size of 6.5, I slice off the ragged edge and if it is more than an inch on the widest part, it goes in the crumb box. Less than that and is easily thrown into the trash can.

This year in my new location I tried setting out skinny trims as nest building material. I tried many times in the Seattle area with no takers I don't know if they were just attracted to them and stealing them, or using them for nesting but most of my skinny trims were taken away -- I saw bluejays get a couple. I have a chain link fence between our dog yard and the rest of our property which drops off into a ravine... I just hung the strips along the top of the fence. Need to work on timing a bit better, I had them out too early to start.

BTW, for String Quilts, this book really showed me what could be done with planning instead of just random scraps.
String Quilt Revival, I have the version with the Nancy Zieman dvd. Is worth looking at if you see a copy (which I often do at guild shops and thrift stores).
https://www.amazon.com/String-Quilt-.../dp/1440214034

Lena1952

Iceblossom, please make sure the skinny bits you put out for birds are short. 3 inches or less works well. I place mine in a small basket. As a wildlife rehabber I’ve had several birds and a few squirrels come in with fabric strips wound around necks and feet. I agree with you on the String Quilt Revival book. It can sometimes be found on Thriftbooks.com as a used copy.

cashs_mom

Make garments as well as quilts and other things. I've started to square up all of the leftovers to make them easier to store and to use later. The odd shaped pieces I cut off get cut into 2 1/2", 3 1/2" and 5 1/2" squares if they are cotton quilting fabric, tossed if they aren't.

Iceblossom

Lena, good comment about the bird trims. Mostly what I am putting out are slivers from my method of cut large and trim down, so are very skinny (starting under 1/4") and usually less than 6 inches, often with a seam held by half a stitch... When I had longer pieces I would cut them down smaller. In Seattle I tried various things like putting them inside of the suet feeders, or loose on the evergreen branches, or many other ways and locations, with never a taker until I took off the bits looking like moldy tinsel.

We do have tons of squirrels out back, it could be them that took the bits. I do my best quilting and work in general in the mornings so that was usually when I would be able to see the critters. Now we have some wildlife cameras so maybe next spring I'll see more.

I use neutral soaps and no dryer sheets and typically let the trimmings air out a bit with limited contact to human type stuff. I'll have to go back and try and figure things out, but I think I started putting them out in March?? but not much action until like April/May. There were quite a few early trims that I had to clean up.

Gemm

I do not trim or straighten edges unless fraying or weird cuts have made a large width on the edge unusable and problematic. When I have weirdly shaped pieces that are big enough to fold, I fold in the wonky edges until they make a regular shape then fold it "properly." I don't have a standard size of strip, unit or block that I regularly work with so, like others have said, I like to keep fabric intact to avoid being 1/4" short for something! :-)