dc989

Sister of a friend just gave me 8 totes and several sacks of quilt fabric. Most of it is quilt shop quality and is very up to date. Now for the problem. I'm finding lots of pieces which have been cut perhaps by a commercial machine? for garments. I know that she buys tons of stuff from yard sales and one of the big sacks was full of pieces for example which had pocket shapes or maybe shorts pieces cut out of big pieces. What's left is selvage edges maybe four inches wide and odd shapes. I can see some real possibilities for scrappy charity quilts but am puzzled about the best sizes to cut these pieces into so I can salvage as much as possible. I would like to cut all these pieces into strips now and then do the cross cuts later so I can organize it into some semblance of order. Any ideas what to do?

I was not going to save the tiny pieces. Did not prewash because it was very clean and I did not want to deal with the snarled mess.

Just as an aside she is getting rid of her stash because she has rheumatoid arthritis and can't sew now. She did lots of kids charity quilts and knew that is my passion too.

PaperPrincess

I would read thru Bonnie Hunter's scrap user's system & then go from there:
http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml

Jeanne S

I would leave everything in as large of pieces as possible for now. You can always cut strips or squares later once you have a pattern. You can't make pieces larger....

Prism99

There are books on how to cut scraps into pieces ready for quilting. The key is usually to cut them so that they can be sewn in multiples. Here is one of them:
http://www.amazon.com/ScrapTherapyTM...dp/1600853331/
This author also has a website: http://hummingbird-highway.com/

Here's another one:
http://debbiesdabbles.blogspot.com/2...p-therapy.html

I think there are some Youtube videos also on cutting scraps. Will post if I can find some.

Edit: Haven't watched them yet, but these look on-topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPspksbaSok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPascPNaJjM

Lori S

Pick a pattern first then cut. I know you would love to make some order out of the piles but do it when you have some idea of the final outcome.

lynnie

I'm doing a hexie quilt. one on top of 2 3/4" you could do something like that. or cut into strips and do a log cabin. I'm cvutting my pcs. from odds and ends and weird pcs.

ManiacQuilter2

I have a similar problem to yours. Our church group received mostly odds and ends of strip pieces that are very irregular from a major manufacturer. Try sorting them by size. I have two friends that make pet beds for local rescue groups so ALL of my smaller scraps that are unusable goes into a sack for them.

dc989

Thanks for links and advise. I finally just went bin by bin and color or theme sorted. Anything that screamed I work together I placed in a shoebox so I could find it. Have three boxes ready with guy themes which I am really lacking. The little stuff I dumped, the non cotton I put in a box for the local thrift store and the rest I cut into 4 and 5 inch strips. There are a few narrower strips which will make a great log cabin quilt. That accounted for 75% I think. The FQ and big pieces went into my other sorted collection, which is now very huge. I forgot to mention that she also gave me at least 10 bolts of flannel most of which has pastel stripes, dots and solids. She always used flannel backs. I think I'm going to be busy. LOL