Some days I am itching to sew, and other days I just feel like slicing things up. Yesterday was one of the latter, although I am well over it by now! What you see above is the result of cutting fabric — lots and lots of fabric — into 2.5″ strips so I can make my newest scrappy project bigger. (BTW, this is why I still don’t have hemmed and photographed FQ skirts to show you.)
Overflowing the white basket are sets of 16″ strips (each set = 1 dark, 2 light, and 3 medium). Lots of strip sets. If this gets done without being downsized somewhere along the way, it will be the largest top I’ve ever made. BTW: I found the tutorial that planted this insidious idea in my head. If you’re tempted, you’ll find detailed instructions here.
Next to the basket are a whole lot of 4.5″x2.5″ rectangles cut from the WoF strip leftovers, destined to join some pre-existing ones that I’ve been collecting in a large zip-lock baggie. Eventually they will become scrappy Flying Geese units for… I don’t know what yet. I just want to make them. (This is how UFOs happen, folks!) And a smaller pile of leftover leftovers trimmed to 2.5″ squares. I have a large baggie for those, too, and no specific use for them, either.
And then there are the scraps. The little scraps. The ones that I couldn’t get a 2.5″ square from, but that whimper pathetically when I think of tossing them and plead with me that they are big enough to keep.
I did throw the smallest trimmings away…
but only the ones that are under and inch or so. Is there a support group for those of us who keep anything larger than a postage stamp?
I’d insist that I really do use them, because I have in fact sewn quite a few together from time to time. But since they have simply migrated from the “smallest scrap” containers into the “constructed fabric” bin, I’ve really only made larger scraps from them.
Given that one of my stated July sewing goals is to fit some improvisational playtime into the schedule, perhaps I will concentrate on improvising with these eensy-weensy pieces, and see what happens.
I’d ask “what’s the smallest size scrap you hold on to?”… but if you’re one of those folks who doesn’t keep anything smaller than a charm square, I don’t want to hear about it. (Except that I do, because your comments make my day!)
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I don’t keep anything less than about a 2″ square. But I’m glad you didn’t ask if they got used! They are overflowing!
I’m working on an extended scrap project of wonky stars. So I keep anything I think I can make a wonky star point out of. The star points go on 2.5 inch base squares so if it is at least 1.5 inches wide and 2 or so inches long, I keep it. If it is at least an inch wide, but I don’t want it, I put it in a box for my daughter’s preschool teacher. It assuages the guilt at getting rid of fabric I’m tired of or never liked in the first place or those scraps that are realistically just too small, but that seem like they ought to be good for something.
So glad to hear I am not alone, and love the wonky star idea. One of these days I will have to resist the urge to buy prints-prints-prints and force myself to buy some neutral solids for wonky star background… Is chartreuse or turquoise a neutral in anyone’s world but mine?
I try so very hard not to keep anything smaller than a 2.5″ square. If I kept everything that seemed like it ought to be useful for something, I’d be drowning and divorced. Well, probably not divorced, but you get the idea. Lately I actually feel good when I look in the waste bin and see fabric scraps in there – weird, I know. I have a little mantra I say to myself when I feel my hoarding tendency start to surface and I want to hold on to all my little scraps… “that was fun while it lasted, you can always buy more”.
And yes I believe chartreuse and turquoise ARE neutrals!!
I have to force myself to throw tiny scraps away. I have a large bin that my husband calls ” scraps too small to be saved”
I save everything, except on rare occasions when I don’t want to see that particular fabric ever again. I have used 1 inch strips to make scrappy (and tiny) 4-patches. The smallest usable for regular piecing is about 3/4 of an inch – any smaller and you lose it all in the seam allowance.
But you don’t need to sew with it — there’s glue-sticks and fusables and mixed-media techniques. I need it all. Maybe. Someday. Even those tiny slivers from trimming improv work.
Venus – you can send me the contents of that waste basket. (I use the bias strips to tie plants to supports in my garden.)
A good reason to have a garden! (although I’d rather sew than garden, so perhaps a good thing this house is on a small lot).