scraps

i love fabric. it's one of the main reasons i quilt. i want to hold onto and make use of every little piece i can. from the beginning i've kept all the tiny pieces hoping to find a use for them. some quilters don't keep anything smaller than 2" or even larger. but i will keep anything at least an inch square. over time, i've found a few projects that make use of the littlest crumbs of fabric and some other regularly discarded cut-offs common to quilting. this page will start with a look at my longterm scrap projects, those i collect scraps for and will work on over time as the pieces accumulate, and share my storage system and favorite inspiration books for scraps.

longterm scrap projects

binding triangles

i save all my little triangle cut-offs from my bindings. the idea is to create a scrapbook sort of quilt with them, a scrapbook of my bindings. i plan to add them to corners of charm squares, either one per square or on each corner for a "tiny tiles" look. after nearly 70 quilts complete, i should have enough for a quilt or two by now.

selvages

i cut my selvages with 1/2" to 3/4" of the fabric print included and set them aside to someday make an epic selvage strings quilt. by now i probably have enough for two or more of those quilts. maybe when i get some wips knocked off the list i'll get around to starting some selvage blocks. i love the idea of having these as a record of my fabrics over the years. selvages are often very stylish in their own right these days as designers make them to appeal to people interested in selvage projects.

 

mimi log cabin heart blocks

pattern from jen kingwell's "quilt lovely" book

i first played with this cute little block in may 2015. i was so excited to find something that made use of 1.5" wide scraps. value contrast is key to seeing the pattern: high volume pieces for the heart portion and low volume pieces for the background.

"bonnie lass" is a pattern of rectangular pinwheels composed of low-volume and prints paired in half square rectangles (the hsr?). the blocks is a common, basic block, but i saw the idea for the quilt with the blocks set on point in jen kingwell's "quilt lovely" book. i have been cutting scraps in two sizes for this project, or rather projects.

ticker tape

a mosaic- style pattern of small scraps seen at stiched in color by rachel la bour. this is a pattern i found early on for use of small pieces. i think i might have options i like more now to use these for. i'll keep it in mind if i get tired of some of the other projects.

"birch"

scrap pattern by crazy mom quilts

uses small scrap pieces

i think i'd go for a more neutral background that what amanda used, but i do like the simplicity of this pattern.

more ideas

from the cover of jolene klassen's "scrap diary" book

jolene created an amazing tiny nine patch quilt which is featured in her "scrap diary" book. she said she did think she went crazy a time or two but she just worked on the little blocks here and there until they were done. i think this could be a fun quilt to look at while snuggling.

this postage stamp quilt from gigi's thimble is similar but it makes use of a neuatral, solid background color for a more distinct checkerboard effect. there's a tutorial for assembly included in this post.

scrap organization and storage

aside from these specific projects i have in mind, i cut and sort my scraps (anything smaller than a quarter yard) into a set of 3 drawer towers i have. i was greatly influenced by jolene klassen and lori holt when it comes to organizing my scraps. i have these ladies to thank for several ideas and the base concepts for how i sort and order them. keeping everything in one giant basket was not a solution that encouraged me to use scraps or made it easy to find what i needed. for a long time i resisted cutting scraps into sizes thinking i wanted to leave my options open for how they could be used. however, after reading jolene's "scrap quilt diary" book and lori's post on her scrap system, i was convinced it would be more effective to make the cuts up front and sort by sizes.

each tower holds a specific kind of scrap, left to right: solids, low-volume prints, mid/high-volume prints. there are 10 drawers per tower. except for the top drawer, each drawer holds a specific width of scrap from 1" - 5"+ scraps in various lengths; the drawers vary by half inch increments (1", 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3", etc). inside each drawer the scraps are further sorted into crumbs, squares, small chunks, and strips. i further arrange the strips into color piles. (this post here explains a little more.)

the top drawer of each tower holds my liberty & chambray scraps that i use primarily for my church lap quilt series. these drawers coordinate with the general purpose of the tower: chambray pieces with the solids, low-volume liberty of all sizes, mid/high-volume liberty of all sizes.

i try to cut and sort the scraps while i'm making them as i cut for quilts. doing it immediately is the neatest and most effective way to keep everything tidy. however, i'm not always able to do this, so i also have a basket on top of the towers that holds any scrap pieces that need to be processed into the drawers.

books