Scrap Management

     What do you do with all those scraps?  Besides making more quilts, I mean.  I enjoy seeing how others manage their leftover fabrics.

     One idea that I really like, and may start doing, is prepping for upcoming projects.  Some quilters, as they are working, will take leftover pieces of fabric and cut them into basic shapes.  They may have a bin for 1"-2" squares, for instance.  They set these aside and let the pile grow until they have enough pieces to start another quilt.  Some even save the smallest of scraps and sew them together to make some really interesting blocks.  There's even a whole book about it, Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts.

     I've also seen where someone took what I would call unusable scraps and somehow blended them together to create a new piece of fabric.

     I found this photo on Pinterest and it led me to Just Jude Designs where she shows you how to use up every last scrap, even the teeniest-tiniest bits of fabric and thread.  It's amazing!

     For now, I toss most of my scraps into bins sorted by color.  Anything under half a fat quarter gets tossed in there.  There are those pieces, however, that are too small or awkward for me to mess with.  Or maybe I'm just tired of looking at them.  Do you ever have pieces of fabric that you've had and used for years and they never seem to get used up?  I sometimes get tired of looking at the same fabric scraps.  For years, I just threw them all away.

You what?!

     But, that changed several years ago when the elementary school sent home a letter asking for leftover craft supplies.  They wanted things like half used bottles of glue, leftover paints, yarn, beads, they even asked for broken crayons.  Well, one day, I was at the sewing machine and one of my kiddos was playing on the floor nearby.  She was digging through the trash can next to the sewing machine and pulling out pieces of fabric to make a picture.  Don't worry, there wasn't anything icky in there, just fabric and thread.  I got to thinking that if my kids enjoyed playing with those tiny, colorful pieces of fabric, maybe other kids would too?

     I called the school and spoke with the art teacher about it and she was interested.  So now, instead of throwing all those little snippets away, I sort them loosely by color and put them in gallon size zip bags.  When I have enough to fill a box, I take them to the elementary school and drop them off.

     There are also those larger pieces of fabric that I somehow end up with, but just don't care for.  Maybe I bought it for a certain quilt, but then ended up going in a different direction; or someone may have given me fabric that I'll probably never use.  If it's a large piece, the high school drama department can often use stuff like that for costumes and backdrops.  It feels good knowing that I'm not wasting any fabrics and they're all being put to good use.