Here is a confession. No. Strike that. A declaration- I do not have a gorgeously arranged, carefully organized scrap stash.
Why am I mentioning it at all? Just a little reassurance that beauty can indeed be made out of chaos. There are as many kinds of quilters as there are quilts, and some are highly organized, and I totally honour that. I am organized in my own way for the bulk (and I mean BULK) of my stash, but scraps? They get collected in a reusable shopping bag that hangs from the back of my sewing chair, and then sometimes, for fun, I dump them all out on the floor and sort by colour. Then they get stuffed back into bags (reused Ziplocs, old gift bags) that roughly represent a broad colour group and then they wait for me to paw through looking for a gem.
I have mentally established a minimum size that I will use to determine if a scrap is actually useable. That size is about the size of a playing card. If it does not meet this minimum size, out it goes. Will I ever use a skinny selvage that I trimmed off a fat quarter? Really? No, I won't. I'm all for frugality, but even my thriftiness has its limits. I don't want bags of miniscule scraps lurking around making me feel guilty.
And that is my highly specialized system for Scrap Management.
2 comments:
I am fascinated by how other hard core quilters "organize" their scraps. I keep everything that measures an inch and a half square or larger. Seriously. And I use them eventually.
Lately, I started bagging Japanese fabric selvages for a customer, and five quilts later, I had accumulated a full grocery bag. I can't wait to see the art she creates from what everyone else throws away.
Whatever you're doing works. Keep it up!!!
Thanks for sharing! I put my scraps pretty much anywhere so yeah mine are a mess. I don't have a lot so it's not too scary yet.
I try to keep my selvages. I have no plans on using them so I figure when I get a lot I'll just give them away on my blog to someone who wants them. I had no idea how cherished they were until my sister in law mentioned it.
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