Hello again friends. Earlier this week I went over some tips on how to help you get your unfinished projects organized and sorted and a few ways to help get some finished. Today I want to talk about your stash.
There are a couple ways to organize your stash and your scraps.
First is by size, you can fold all the larger pieces neatly and stack them nicely in a cupboard or on a shelf. The small pieces I would suggest cutting into sizes you would normally use, a really good way is into 5" Squares, 3" squares, and 2.5" strips. Or whatever size you really like to use, but these sizes mentioned are good ones to work off of, and than storing them in little totes that are labelled with the size.
Another way is by color, again fold the larger pieces but then stack them up in colors, and rather than cutting up all the small pieces just put them in a tote or basket with other colors in the same family, reds, pinks, yellows, greens, aqua, navy etc.
You could sort through your scraps every time you finish a project or have a little basket that you sort through when ever it is filled.
There may be fabrics that you really don't love anymore and it is totally fine to sell or donate these.
My quilt room is nonexistent right now, all my organized totes are in closets around the house wherever they fit (my four boys have quilting supplies in their bedroom closets at the moment) and I am sewing at the kitchen table until our renovations are finished, so I have no photos to share of how I organize my space, but when my new sewing room is finished I will share photos of it here.
My favorite way to use up scraps and my stash is to join a quilt along and try not buy any fabrics for it. A quilt along is a great way because usually other people are joining in as well and it helps keep you accountable to working on and finishing the project.
I did the Gypsy Wife Quilt along here a couple years ago and several people me included made their quilt completely from their stash and they looked so fun! (I'll admit mine was a very planned "scrappy" quilt, and although I used 10 collections of fabric they are from the same designer.)
Another way to use them up is to shop from your own cupboard first when you pick a new project. You can add new pieces in if needed.
Or make some quilts and donate them to a charity or someone in need.
A couple other great stash buster patterns are Log Cabin Quilts, Pineapple Quilts, String Quilts and simple square patchwork quilts. Creative Grids has rules in various sizes for the Log Cabin Quilts and Pineapple Quilts so you can get really nice accurate blocks.
I have plans for another scrap buster quilt along so stay tuned for the details on that. If I can get the details sorted this weekend I will post about it Monday.
I don't have a very large stash and that is for a couple reasons, I have the quilt shop at hand and I don't enjoy making scrappy quilts, I like to use one collection or one designer (I can mix Art Gallery collections and designers, but I cannot add in any other manufacturer to that). I also try to do a scrap buster quilt every year to stay in control.
I have seen a lot of beautiful scrappy quilts, I just would rather work with a full collection by a fabric designer.
If you also don't really enjoy making scrappy quilts and would rather work with a full collection from a designer, don't feel bad donating your fabrics to a guild or charity organization or selling it on a buy and sell group. Just like other items in your home it is ok to get rid of things including fabrics that don't work for you or don't make you happy.
Have a great weekend, we have some yard work to do after the big wind storm yesterday, hopefully the warm weather will stick around for that.
Kayla
No comments:
Post a Comment