Thursday, January 26, 2017

Saving scraps

I've been quilting for a long time and don't tend to throw any scraps out that might be usable.
Now that I'm doing applique, I find I can use more than before.

Prairie Moon showed us how she organizes her scraps and asked how we organized ours.
I've shown mine before and got some fairly nasty comments.
Please, if you are going to be nasty, don't post.
I know I have a scrap problem and I use them, so I feel good about having them organized by color and sizes
This shows the majority of the bins with anything that is less than a FQ in them.
They are organized by color.
You can see that I use lots of blues. 
I do wish I had the same bins to make the stacking a bit easier, but they work.
This is the rest of the colors and then the novelty prints, Christmas prints, non-quilting fabrics, florals.
Above them are the pre-cut sizes.
I have found that I really do not use the cut ones as much as I thought I would.
If I have a quilt that requires many colors of the same sized squares, then I go to them.
If it is for a specific color, I tend to cut them instead of looking in the drawers.
I'm trying to be better at checking these, but I don't find it that useful for me.
This is the string bins.
Yes, I have two.
They multiply.
I used to make heartstrings, but somehow stopped that.
I use them when I need to have strings, and i use them when I need a certain color in strips.
I really would like to make up more of the string blocks, but I have so many other things I'm working on that it is on the back burner.
For now, I am collecting them to use in MANY MANY quilts.

3 comments:

Sherry said...

If you are using your scraps in a way that works for you then your storage is fine.

I have not found an answer to my storage requirements yet. But I have an entire basement where stuff has been shifted all over the place due to a couple of floods and then just plain busy-ness so that we have not gotten the basement organized again.

However, we have started thinking about retirement (even though it is still a ways off) and possibly moving. . . so the basement has to be dealt with this year. I do not want to have to pay to get all the stuff we have moved to another location only to still be disorganized.

I have found myself working on a couple of projects at a time. . . .using one project as a "thread catcher" between working on the main project. Of course that means that I am doing a lot of cutting as prep work, but seeing two or three projects growing at the same time is fun.

Sewing Junkie said...

I find it amazingingly rude that people use the keypad to be so condeming to otheres. Facebook is that way also. These cowardly individuals hide behind a screen. Your method of storage is your personal method. I use mine different then the "Famous Quilter's" do. I don't have the space or the money to make it picture perfect. I would ignore the comments.
I hope you can get it all sewn up in your life time. My son tells me he is going to take it to the landfill. Enjoy your quilting. Chris

pasovasz said...

I agree with Chris. Many yers ago, I heard someone say "consider the source" when people make nasty comments. They are unhappy (and usually not productive individuals) who vent their frustrations on others. Some of us choose to deal with the trials and tribulations of life by sewing. We allow our energy to help others, not tear them down.

Remember that how we organize and how/what we sew are our personal hobbies. Something we can control and enjoy in our own way. I like crazy quilt styles. They seem to fulfill a need to make something beautiful from the leftovers of other projects. It is so much "neater" to cut a length of fabric off a bolt than to rummage through bins of scarps, but not as much fun IMO. Just my 2 cents.