Scrap busting

Scraps. Is there anything in quilting that inspires as much discussion? We love them. We hate them. We make quilts from them. We give them away. We throw them out in disgust. We organize them more thoroughly than the card catalogues in libraries, or we pitch them into bags in case our OCD ever gets so bad we need to sort something.

The scraps that challenge me are those that have already been curated to go together. They are left from a particular project, for which you cut some extra pieces, or you used most of a fabric collection but have little bits left, or you just treasure them too much to pitch into the main scrap bag. Those I put in little baggies, and store carefully in a tub full of similar little baggies, for when inspiration strikes. The problem is, inspiration strikes much less commonly then the bags are added, and the tub is getting full. It is also buried deep in the mountain of tubs relocated to my living room after the sewing room flood.

This summer I made Deer for dinner placemats from fabrics that I loved. When they were finished, I was left with a number of bits of strip sets, and some strips, as well as some bigger chunks that were too small for the stash and too pretty for the scrap bin. As I went to get a baggie, I rebelled. “Noooo!!! I will not bag up this fabric. I will not leave it lying around. I will not dig through bins to put it away. I will USE it.” What a novel thought!

This is “Something from Nothing”, inspired by the children’s book of the same name. The center is part of Corey Yoder’s Patchwork Flower, block 13, for the Moda 2018 Blockheads #2 block of the week program. It is surrounded by strips, and strip sets, and deer that were too darling to cut up. I even broke out my previously unused blocloc half rectangle ruler to make the yellow triangles. When it was pieced, I sewed together three pieces of batting, then three strips of flannel for a backing, quilted a square spiral over the entire thing, bound it with my last few strips of teal, and called it a baby quilt.

I was thrilled with myself until I looked at my table and saw…more scraps. Still not going to baggie them, I decided to bag them. That is, I sewed them together in a tote sized slab, pieced some more batting strips, and found a piece of neglected fabric in the stash for lining. Le voila, a tote bag!

When it was done, I was left with two pieces smaller than a charm square. I put them in my scrap bag, and patted myself on the back for a job well done. And then I hung the lot of it on the clothesline and took a picture.

The end.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I’m definitely looking for a Whoop Whoop.