
Katie, a nice reader of this blog, contacted me over the weekend, and raised such an interesting question about scraps. We'd love to know your "Scrap Policy" and hope you will take the time to comment and share what types of scraps you bother to save. There are so many amazing quilts that can be made with scraps and I am curious as to what the ideal size is for saving. Do you bother with tiny pieces? Or do they end up in the trash bin? How small is too small?
I wanted to rummage around in the sewing room a bit and see what sort of scraps I had thought to save from leftover projects, and discovered a zip lock bag packed full of colorful Civil War scrap squares, most around two inches square. There are a lot of them, and I must have thought I could use them for something. I sure haven't, but now that I see them, the wheels are turning in my brain.
Typically, I personally do not tend to save super small scraps. If I have a leftover scrap that is 5 or 6 inches square (charm square size), I will keep it if it is a fabric I love. Otherwise, meh, I will probably toss it. Bigger scraps, definitely. I save those in bins according to color. These range in size from fat quarters, fat eighths, ten inch squares, whatever could be incorporated into a project when I need a certain shade. For instance, I have been extremely happy on more than one occasion when I have been looking for just the right shade of red and found it in one of my red scrap bins. Blues and greens are even trickier to match and can be worth saving.

I have color coordinated bins of fabric in my closets, and loads more in tubs in the garage. The fabrics are folded and easy to access in bins labeled according to fabric theme and color. I feel that I am an artist, and those fabric scraps are my palette.

I know some folks cut their leftover fabric into strips to use in Log Cabin or other strip style quilts. Have you ever done that? It seems like it would take too much time for me, but then I guess you would be all good to go with your strips ready if you made a lot of strip style projects. I must have done it at least once though. Look, I found a bag of 1 1/2 inch purple strips I had cut for something.

Speaking of extreme scrap saving, I knew a woman who saved even the tiny dog ear snippets from half square triangles. I think she may have used them to stuff dog beds or something, but never the less, she never threw them away! I also remember a gal I used to sew with who saved all her folded corner clippings to make tiny little half square triangle squares! She would use them to make inner borders of half square triangle squares on some of her quilts.
You should take a rummage around your sewing room and see what hidden scrap treasures you might find. I discovered an entire basket of scrappy two inch half square triangle squares. What? There must be close to a hundred of them. Evidently I thought those small scraps were worth saving! I think I need to come up with some projects and use these scraps up, don't you agree?

So, what's in your scrap basket? Do share!