Fabric Stash Management - Scraps

When I started quilting again back in 2010(ish) I didn't have much of a fabric collection.  I had some scraps left over from my first 3 quilts, but they were not high quality fabrics and fit into one of those plastic bins we kept in the garage.  I can still remember the day I walked into my first quilting store, Ruby Street Quiltworks, in Tumwater, WA and the awe I experienced at all the beautiful colors and wonderful smooth feel to their fabric. It was heavenly!  From that day a new world opened up for me and I have been collecting (and sometimes sewing) ever since.

It is funny (a little) to look back on those early classes and guild meetings when they would call for fabric from your stash.  I had none and had to go shopping even when what was called for was less than 5".   While my current "collection" is not huge, it is not that small either.  I've got a nice "little" stockpile of my favorite colors to choose from.

For the majority of 2019 and the better part of 2018 I did very little sewing, and my buying slowed considerable too.  (thankfully) That is until several local quilt stores when out of business.  The variety store in Elma had a HUGE going out of business clearance reduction and I came away with a garbage bag FULL of fabric.  Then my beloved Ruby Street went out of business too.  It was a sad sad day.  I bought some of my favorites, but it was unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for my checkbook) it was picked over pretty fast. 

Now I am back to sewing again.  My big motivation has been on FINISHES.  I finished Michael's quilt, a small child quilt, 2 doll quilts, a table runner, my Christmas applique top, and a SSMQG charity top so far in Dec. '19 and Jan. '20.  I'm working on quilting those last 2 finishes and hope to have at least one of them done before the end of the month.  Now it is time to pace myself to 1-2 finishes from my UFO bins and break into some of that new fabric I bought when stores were going out of business and find a place to store them and choose new quilts to quilt.  More on that later.

My first step is to go through my scraps and get them back into something manageable.    I've been inspired by my dad and uncles recent assessment of my grandma's craft collections (aka "hoard" in their minds) to use up some of what I have before it becomes overwhelming.  (I'm honestly almost there in my scrap bins)  It has motivated me to cut my scraps in squares of different sizes for future quilts too.   My sizes are 5", 4.5", 4", 3.5", 3", 2.5", 2" and 1.5".  The majority of the fabric is going to be 2.5" since that is what is called for in the traffic jam and it is also used in the Scrap Snap QAL.  (More on these 2 things tomorrow)  The 1.5" is an experiment to see what I think of using them to make doll  quilts.  If I don't like it, I won't continue to cut down anything under 2".  Here is a 2" scrappy doll quilt I made for my niece with leftover scraps from her doll quilt for Christmas.  (mental note...need to post pictures of her doll quilts soon)

I LOVE how this one turned out. I need to take pictures of the finish for you.  Putting that on my to-do list.

In this process of cutting down my scrap bins I've also started a wonky, scrappy, sort-of log cabin, but not really, 6.5" squares.  Here is my "in progress" on these.  It's a place to sew together extra pieces and bits that don't make it into a quilt or when I get tired of cutting down odd shaped fabric scraps.  So far I am making the block mono-chromatic because that is pleasing to my eyes. 

I should have taken a before picture of my scrap bin.  You can see from the top what the rest sort-of looked like.  I started with the colors I wanted to use (possibly) for the Scrap Snap QAL (more on that tomorrow) and haven't yet tackled the neutral basket on top.

These bar strips were from a swap our guild did.  They are decidedly NOT my colors, but I am trying to turn them into something I can make that someone else will like.  These will 100% be dontated.  LOL  I'm not entirely sure how they ended up on top of my nuetrals scrap bin.  hmmm...

That's better (not!)  The top bin is for white, grey, black, and cream.  I don't really have any brown, but if I did/do it will likely go in the yellow/orange bin.   Obviously I also have some leftover dot strips that are hanging from this basket.  I think I used some of the strips from this jelly roll to complete Aunt Cathy's prayer quilt.  On top of that bin is a bin for tiny scraps or my current project.  Again I have things piled on top and overflowing.  When my creative space gets to this point it is time to MAKE TIME to clean it up, organize and purge. 

Here is a shot of the scrap bin storage.  As you can see I have pinks & purples in the top below my neutrals, greens & blues in the middle and yellow, orange and red in the bottom.  I went through each of these bins and pulled out small scraps to cut into squares for the quilt alongs I am taking part in.  It's a work in progress, but at least I am working on it.  Most everything in these bins are fat quarters or smaller.  When it gets down to 5" size (or smaller) I will be cutting it into the sizes I mentioned above.