How To Keep Scraps Out Of Your Scrap Pile | Episode 48

In this video, The Opinionated Quilter gives you tips to keep scraps out of her scrap pile. As you know she hates scraps!
Instagram: quiltershea...

[@patriciametts1170]

You give good advice for dealing with the scrap heaps that tend to accumulate after every project. Thanks.

[@pollyjazz]

Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts uses the leftover scraps and sample blocks to incorporate into the back of the quilt. She calls it an After Quilt. It's a genius idea which works well to use up scraps that can't possibly make an entire quilt but are enough to make some creative patchwork piece. Why shouldn't the back of a quilt be pretty too? I have a box where i keep all my sample blocks with the hope someday I will have enough to put together to make a really strange quilt, probably ugly but with many memories attached ☺️. In the meantime i sometimes raid the box and use the odd blocks for smaller projects. Like this Christmas i wanted to make some needle books for gifts but was pressed for time so I used some of these ready made blocks and was able to make the books in just a day because the hard part was already done. Thank you for your opinions! Keep 'em coming!💕☺️

[@beverlyjames2850]

Thank you for challenging us to think before starting to cut and sew a new quilt. Your tips and tricks are much appreciated!!!

[@lucilegubbins4433]

I appreciate the much more thoughtful approach to managing the resources. Small pieces quickly become overwhelming!

[@bethkoch11]

Maureen, do you see that lightbulb that just went on over my head? The leftover quilt is a fabulous idea! I recently finished a quilt top using fat quarters and I loved the fabric. But I have a lot it left including a few untouched FQ's and I'm going to pull out my Dresden template, or maybe the Tumbler, and enjoy that fabric again without it going into my scrap bin.

[@janislong279]

I was just going to suggest that maybe you can use the leftovers to make blocks to put on the back of your quilt. Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts calls it the Afterquilt. I do it with every quilt now. If I still have leftover blocks or scraps then I make them into backing for pet beds for donation. I hate having a lot of scraps left over too. Live your videos. ♥️

[@suebennett3715]

ingenious advice...Don’t put them IN the scrap bin! And I was privileged to hear a doctor saying his own 10 year old son was in hospital for emergency appendectomy, and afterwards, he got to pick a quilt, & the doctor said it was such a comforting moment for them all.

[@kathleenmayhorne3183]

You could use those pieces as leaders and enders, when you start the next project and reassess how and where you want pieces to fit together after they are all sewed once? You can sew up a few more if you still want to sew at the end of the day, 4-patches are great for this, turn them into 16 patches when you have a stack, at the end of your day, press and lay aside until you have enough? You can sash and cornerstone or not, use them as alternate blocks etc., or use them in larger quilts or smaller projects, as you want to. Lay them out and play, then decide if you want to add an accent colour or not, for your bonus quilt, is it big enough? Have you decided on a border for your bonus 1 quilt? If you don't have enough bits left for another quilt, would it do a great border? It could be a pillowcase to match or a cushion? You could pull a few of your scraps and cut into largest strips, binding widths, or pre-cut sizes, down to smallest usable, after cutting out a project, over time, and reduce the pile slowly, then just pick from ready cut pieces in project box piles or labelled shoeboxes? You could put all 5" squares together, when ever you do this, until there is enough for a baby quilt or a lap rug or bigger. If you get some unattractive 10" squares too, they can still be cut down as well. You can easily cut more squares quickly from ready cut 5" strips, if you are short by a few? Strips don't have to be fat 1/4 length or width of fabric, Better than breaking down odd scraps in a hurry? Am i wrong, I often am being mathematically challenged, do 3" sguares make a 5" four-patch, to go with 5 " squares, and 9 1/2" spuares which all end up at 4 1/2" and 9" finished? You could use 18× 1 1/2" squares to frame a fussy 3 1/2" patch, a pinwheel, spuare in a square or a label. Frame a nice 5"square with 3" or 3 1/2" squares and strips? To get it all big enough to go in. You can piece crumbs and strings into useful strips or squares (5"?)on paper, and add to the pile for later. So much fun to be had. I like smaller snowball, excess triangles being used as hourglasses or square in a square. Also spare hst's work. Put them in with the same size of squares and you can put them all together quickly as a charity quilt etc. You can sew it as larger leader and enders as well to get it all done quicker. I saw Tiffany cutting 1 1/2" and 2" wide strips into piano key border lengths, chain piecing them into a strip, then she got a roll of it out, that was made earlier, sewed if to the end, and unrolled enough to do her borders. I thought it was a really good way of working ahead, and using up less useful widths of strips. Please don't be offended if you knew all of this already, I just try to be helpful.

[@ScrapYourStory]

I like your leader and ender idea.

[@tracyrichmond-pshyk8863]

Always enjoy your opinion. Thanks so much for sharing.

[@deloresrast8543]

Thank you!!! Inspires me to use the scraps up as I go!

[@helenpeddycord2241]

Very carefully thought out directions Maureen! I’m so thankful I found your channel and for your intro to Deb Tucker! Now, when I’m following a pattern I see is going to have a lot of wasted fabric, I search your videos & Deb’s for a better way to accomplish precise piecing with much less scraps to toss or store in the scrap bins. Thank you ever so much!💕🧵

[@rosemaryhanderson6122]

I have been using scraps and orphan blocks to make small quilts for animal shelters. All sizes of pet come into shelters and they don’t care what quilts look like. I was told if an adopted animal can take a blanket to its new home it is easier them. With my age and pain level I can’t lift big quilts to work on them so I do lap size baby size and multi sizes for the pets.

[@jackietucker8942]

I LOVE your Opinions.. Always great helps.

[@gretroman8235]

Another great video. I agree that you provide efficient piecing and precision quilting tips. I often keep leftover pieces together. I know someone who makes door or teddy bear quilts for children. Thanks for your ideas on tackling and preventing scrap accumulation.

[@catherinevallier9310]

Excellent idea. Thanks.

[@dianaabram5525]

Great value! It's not easy to make a quilt out of scraps from one project but if we look for projects with small different blocks it should work.

[@kerryl4031]

The fewer seams, the less fabric wasted too! I'm all for the Deb Tucker rulers. Just going through my scraps - ugh! I see a lot of 9 patches in my near future - or another Irish chain or two. I will beat them into submission! LOL!

[@lynnemccarthy-my5mi]

I'm really enjoying your videos. I take my scrap bin away with me on our summer boat trip. By the end of the trip, I have cut all the scraps up and bagged the pieces into quilt projects.

[@notesfromleisa-land]

Planning on how one is going to approach a block or choose a construction method is foundational to building one's quilting expertise. It is nearly impossible to do as a new quilter because you don't know what you don't know--but it ought to be a goal. Further, investing in proper tools makes all the difference. Too often I see construction methods that are wasteful just to avoid purchasing a ruler that will make things more efficiently. Again, hard to evaluate as a new quilter. Frankly sometimes you have to use the 'piecemeal' construction if you are using unavoidable scraps rather than production methods that start with a larger piece.

[@janrichardson8331]

Love the info that you share on best use of scraps and techniques.

[@franpatzcraig6713]

We recently downsized to a senior living complex apartment. I have no room for scraps! I'm in the middle of a quilt for my daughter with lots of triangle trimmings that are tiny but too big to toss IMHO. So I'm sewing a parallel seam on each one before trimming to make HSTs and trimming them to 1 1/2in squares. They will make a sweet pillow or two to go with the quilt.

[@BonnieWaldrup]

I saw that show and noticed that too. Not her best, although, it was a "challenge" to use a half rec ruler. 😊

[@user-fk3gd8zx5p]

I like to use leftovers in my quilt backing.

[@pamelachappell3005]

I found Jodi Barrows and like her rulers and square in a square system. Any cutoffs are made into other quilts. I wish I had found her in the beginning because I would only have her rulers + a square set and one long ruler. Instead of all the rulers I never use.

[@kathleenmayhorne3183]

Could you put double stick tape on the back or a tube of clear sticky tape, to stop them slipping, if that is the drawback, and maybe use them? It is easy to remove and cheap to replace if in the wrong place or getting too much lint on it to stick down anymore? Once put on fresh, it may stick too well to paper at first, so put it on fabric a few times to reduce the tack a bit.

[@C123abc]

Thank you! Have a great week.

[@dianelouise3944]

I’d like to see your approach to “hugs and kisses” blocks. I’m not sure what the most efficient process is for those. I really appreciate your analytic approach to quilt-making. When I consider a pattern, I compare the amount of fabric required to the amount I would need to do a whole-cloth quilt of the same size. The difference gives me an idea of how efficiently the fabric is used in the pattern.

[@notesfromleisa-land]

Using a Folded Corner Clipper (FCC) is an efficient way to produce blocks such as this. Using these rulers, you can clip the base unit with seam allowance (waste) and replace it with an HST cut from a strip. The FCC accurately aligns and allows for the seam allowance. I'm no big fan of having tons of little clipped corners for pinwheels.

[@ScrapYourStory]

@@notesfromleisa-land thank you! I try to avoid sew and flip corners whenever possible

[@notesfromleisa-land]

@@ScrapYourStory me too!

[@rosemaryhanderson6122]

Thank you for your common sense

[@theopinionatedquilter]

Thank you so much for watching.

[@suewebster2768]

❤❤❤❤

[@theopinionatedquilter]

Thank you.

[@TheJAG1357]

Thank you ❤❤❤❤