Managing scraps!

[soniasimone]

Since this, like all Jen's quilts, is super scrappy, I thought I'd open a topic to talk about our favorite ways for managing scraps.

I like to keep a project basket that I can pull fabrics from as I'm making blocks. To be able to keep as many different fabrics as possible in there, I usually will cut off a 5-inch strip (sometimes a different dimension) from my yardage, then cut pieces from that.

I put the remainder of that fabric in my stash system, and when I run out of that cut strip I can get another one as needed. I fold larger pieces of yardage ( around 1/3 yard and up) around comic book boards, and anything smaller gets folded and sorted into bins by color families.

If it's a very precious piece of fabric -- something like a long out-of-print Kaffe that I want to get every inch out of -- I'll cut each piece individually from the larger yardage, so I can preserve the biggest possible pieces and have the most flexibility.

I keep a small basket with my smallest scraps, and poke through that to see if I have some good options for small pieces on the WIP. Those fan blade units can use up a lot of little bitty leftovers! Appliqué is also a great way to use even some really small scraps.

Scrappy quilts are also a great way to use unused pieces from charm packs, layer cakes, and jelly rolls.

Anyone have a favorite scrap wrangling technique?