When Less Equals More - Fabric Scraps, Strips, & Crumbs

I will have a dedicated sewing room soon, but for now, I sew in the dining room. I store all of my fabric in the attic except for two medium size tubs of scraps, one for crumbs, the other for scraps smaller than a fat quarter and a small stack of 10 inch squares to use for backings.

A couple weeks ago I realized the bin for larger scraps was stuffed full so I decided to cut some patches for a few scrappy quilts and try to use up enough scraps to make a dent in that tub. I promised myself I would finish each quilt completely before moving on to the next. Going to the attic for border, background, backing, binding and sashing or framing fabric would be legal though.

I like a lot of variety in my scrap quilts so I only cut a few patches out of each fabric in a few sizes, 4.5 inch squares for an Indian Hatchet quilt, 3 X 5 inch bricks for a Nickel Brick quilt, 2 X 5 inch strips for a Rail Fence quilt and 2.5 and 2 inch squares just because. The result after a few afternoons of cutting was 2 shoe box size containers of ready to go pieces and a slightly fuller crumb bin. For some reason the bin for larger scraps looked about the same but the top did fit on easier.

I started the Indian Hatchet quilt first and when my daughter (who loves scrappy but does not quilt herself) saw it, she wanted it for a TV watching snuggle quilt.

I finished it about a week ago.

When I went to look for the stack of squares to make the back of the Indian Hatchet quilt, I unearthed a stash of crumb blocks I squirreled away after I used a bunch for this quilt. I decided I needed to make another quilt from them because the crumb bin was pretty full and soon I would be making some new crumb blocks to try to empty that bin a bit. I decided on this pattern, which was really fast and easy.

But it still left me with this stack of crumb blocks which fill another shoebox container.



And I needed more 10 inch squares for the backing so I had to get some fabric from the attic.

Of course, after I cut the squares there were scraps left over which filled the bin with the larger scraps past the point of closing easily.

I am right back where I started except now I have 3 shoebox size bins full of ready to go pieces in addition to the two medium size tubs.