We are snowed in today! :) And I have been going through some totes of fabric. I have tons of scraps and I usually just throw them in t canvas tote bag and dig through when I need something. But my question is "How Small Is Too Small?" What do you throw away and what do you keep? And how do you sort your fabrics? Do you sort by color? By Fabric Lines? Or just keep it all mixed together?
Right now due to lack of storage I have to keep mine mixed all together, but do plan on trying to sort it by color and then just put it back in the large totes. Right now that is about all that I can do. As far as scraps go, if I end up having something really small I try to save it back for when I need a 2in or 2 1/2in square.
I was just curious about everyone else.
Kristie
10 comments:
I just about to sort mine, I am thinking by colour for any thing of a decent size, and maybe by size for small scraps or strings. I will see how this works for me. I know that when I go hunting it’s normally for a particular colour.
As far as I am concerned I only keep no less than 1/4 yard of any one pattern. Now it maybe in strips or pieces. I figure I will need at least that much for an accent in a quilt. But then I am not a big one on just scrappy quilts. Guess because I have many, many yards of new fabric just waiting for me and my rotary cutting wheel or scissors. As for storing - I keep all the small ones pretty much together in a tote.
What works for one person may not work for another.
Plus everything depends on how much storage room you have.
Your boys will be happy, no school? I'm like you at the moment everything small and acrappy just gets thrown into a big bin, but I was planning at some stage this year on sorting it all out. I keep my small pieces for applique, but I also have pieces in there that could go into a scrap quilt. I think when I get around to it I'll sort and cut into squares, anything that's big enough for a square and then store in a seperate container for a totally scrap quilt.
I've recently started cutting and storing mine as Bonnie at http://quiltville.com/ does hers. She has an entire system for her scrap quilts and it sounds like it'll be great once I get enough cut and ready to sew. I just have to get used to cutting strips and other pieces as soon as I've finished cutting for my project. Hope this helps.
I keep it ALL! (not really, tiny scraps go in a basket and then I deal with them later). It's fabric and I am addicted! I like scrap quilts and applique so all size pieces fit into those quilts.
Storage is getting to be a problem so maybe I need to adjust that or just make some string quilts here soon.
I've just begun quilting and subsequently I haven't acquired a stash as yet. I'm really eyeing a scrap quilt on Quilt shoppe.com and cringe at the thought of buying fabric to get an authentic scrap quilt. If anyone has any 100% cotton fabric to donate to the cause, it will surely be loved.
I've been cutting my scraps into either strips or squares of various widths.
I've done 1.5" and 2" strips and then 2.5", 3.5" and 4.5" squares. I think that will just about cover it. I've got a kids plastic set of drawers and I've put them all in there.
love and hugs xxx
I am only at the point of keeping small to tiny pieces in one basket - for "later" sorting. I also wanted to mention Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville website. She has some spectacular scrap quilts that I really want to try this year. She has a mystery quilt going on now which I am following, but haven't started yet.
I keep mine in plastic shoe boxes sorted by color. I keep any size as I also use for applique.
Maureen
I try to keep my scraps organised a bit after reading about Bonnie's system. I sort of half do it - I keep all Japanese, 30's, 1800's scraps in their own boxes or big ziplock bags, then all others I keep 2 and 2.5inch strips, then small scraps (less than 3") then big (bigger than 3"). I try now to keep nearly everything, but if it is less than 1" I figure that once you take off 2 x 1/4" seam allowance, there isn't anything left. I also keep a container of strings that are strips that aren't one width all the way along the stip. Sounds better than it is, trust me!
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