A blog series on uniformly folding and storing quilt fabric:
Part 1: When Life Gives You Scraps, Make Quilts
Part 2: 4 Ways You Can Fold Fabric to Organize Your Quilt Studio
Part 3: 5 Great Tips On How to Store Fabric (coming soon)
If you’ve been a quilter for a while, I’m sure you’ve heard this quote, “When life gives you scraps, make quilts!”
Eye candy for quilters!
What do you do with those itty-bitty pieces or “left overs” from a project?
Customer in the Spotlight
Mary B. of Broomfield, CO sent pictures of her table runners shown here.
She said, “Finally finished 2 table runners I made using your lovely fall fabrics.”
They are lovely and so appropriate for the fall season.
Granted, she didn’t use fabric scraps to make these table runners, but they did give me food for thought. (I must be hungry-candy, left overs, food.) She has fussy cut some of the custom wildlife batiks that are sold here to make block centers.
Fussy Cut Fabric
Fussy cut means to take a piece of printed fabric and cut it so that the image is in the center of the square or other geometric shape.
I had these little bits of lighthouses and sailboats (from the At the Shore collection by 3 Wishes) left over from another project. I fussy cut them and surrounded them with triangles. I just have to figure out what to do with them now. Any suggestions?
Mindless Piecing
I belong to the Quaking Aspen Quilt Guild in Boulder, CO. They have a FREE table. Who doesn’t love free?? Before COVID19 when getting together was a “thing”, the Free table was the first stop I’d make (as if I don't have enough fabric already).
I assume they are leftovers but someone might be throwing their “ugly fabric” on the free table. You never know what’s going to show up! As the saying goes, “One quilter’s fabric scrap is another quilter’s treasure.” (Or something like that.)
I love piles of fabric scraps like this for what I call “mindless piecing”. I’d say it’s a hybrid of chain-piecing and crazy quilting. You sew a couple of pieces together to form a unit.
Then "whack off" what isn’t working to form either a nice rectangle or square.
Keep sewing units together and "whack off" what isn’t working to make larger pieces.
Don’t worry, they can be any size because it’s very possible that part of the next (larger) unit will get "whacked" to the right size too.
Guess I was in a red, white and black mood when I picked these fabric scraps up for visuals. Reminds me of the child’s joke, “What’s white and black and read all over?” No, it’s not the newspaper anymore, it’s a quilt.
Anyway, this is how the table runner, “When Life Gives You Scraps, Make Cardinal Runners”, was created. You really have to help me out with better quilt names. Any suggestions?
Leftover Fabric Scraps
I was in a class to make this quilt called “Gently Down the Stream” by Christina Cameli of Portland, OR.
As you can see, I rarely finish quilt projects because my mind is always focused on creating the next landscape pattern. But anyway, after I made these pieces, I was more intrigued by the leftovers.
Leftovers are especially delicious when they are fabric (calorie-free too).
And this awesome star was born. I really have to stop with the puns and jokes. It’s so unlike me.
Itty-bitty Fabric Scraps
I came across some mosaic art pieces on Instagram. I was so fascinated with the work that my teeny-tiny fabric scrap pieces came to mind. So, I’ve got a series in the works called “Mini Mosaic Masterpieces”. I just need to write the pattern (ugh) and then test it out. Here's a sneak peek.
Quilty Quote:
Stay tuned...In the next couple of blogs, I’d like to talk about how to tame, fold and store your fabric stash. So please check back.
If you have other ideas on how to use fabric scraps, I’d love to hear about them. PS I’m always looking for pattern testers. If you’re interested, please contact me here.
Until next time,
Happy Quilting, Jackie