Thursday, January 21, 2010

(Could there be?) Scraps Too Small to Save



I am of the opinion that there are few scraps too small to save. As evidence, I present Exhibit A (right). Please note the dime - it is there to prove the little pieces you see really do measure ~1/4" square. I will either save this piece and combine it with others to make a larger small quilt OR turn it into a coaster (they make great gifts).

I keep a basket of scraps by my sewing machine. Whenever I come to the end of a row of stitching, I stitch together scraps.

There are several reasons to do this:
1. It doesn't waste thread.
2. It is thrifty.
3. It provides endless entertainment as you play with ways to put the scraps together.

SO it is rare that I throw away scraps. And I note other quilters have this same tendency. Some of these improvisational quilts I collect are at their most interesting when someone slips in an extremely small scrap.

So I pose that question to you - what do you do with your smallest scraps?

6 comments:

  1. Wow, that are really small scraps!
    I save most of my scraps, too. From the smallest of them I sew little quilts for my doll´s house. (Three of them you can see on my blog.)
    The more I love a fabric, the harder it is to throw away only one single tiny piece of it.;-)
    Steffi

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  2. Steffi, it looks like you used even smaller scraps for the tiny flying geese quilt. It is fantastic!

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  3. Oh dear... I'm saving my tiny scraps for you. I'm usually so excited to reduce the clutter that I toss mine with glee. Hope you bring a second suitcase to pt Bonita.

    See you soon. Penny

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  4. woo! bring it on!! can't wait to see you....

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  5. I give my smallest scraps to my mom. She makes quilts LIMBO-STYLE. Instead of "how low can you go", she plays "how little can you make it". Recently, she made a quilt for a mouse.

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  6. I'm going to try to do what you do with your smallest ones. I've been keeping squares as small as 1.5", but anything smaller I've tossed. I won't any more. I often wonder why someone hasn't come up with a way to blend them all together and make new fabric - sort of like you do with crayon chips, or with dough you're cutting for biscuits. What a magical creation that could be!

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