Ready for some real life?
I've decided to go through my fabrics and do some scrap management.
You see, recently I was gifted a bunch of fabric from a couple of different people. I had the job of going through it, refolding, (keeping what I wanted) and then figuring out what to do with it all. One kid notably asked "Is this what we're going to have to do when you die?"
Now, I have no plans on dying anytime soon, but it did get me thinking that really, my craft/fabric stuff is pretty chaotic. And whenever I work on something, I often wish it was more organized.
So to that end I started cutting up some scraps this past Sunday.
They have been stuffed in a small plastic box since *
this project*.
I'm pretty much using
Bonnie Hunter's method. But really, its just cutting scraps into usable sizes and shapes. i.e. squares and strips.
We have an unattached garage with a finished upper room. It holds a ping pong table, a foosball table, some chairs and a couple of couches, lots of boxes, and 90% of my fabric.
Not all the stuff pictured here is fabric. But most of it is.
So I've started going through it all. Since I took this picture, the yellows have been kicked out of this box to make room for more reds.
I'll need a whole bigger box for blues, soon.
Other random piles. Pinks, greens, black and white, stripes, fruit. I don't have a great system yet, but I'm just getting started. Also pictured is a random ping pong paddle and Lego creations.
This is my growing pile of scraps to be cut down. I decided to organize all the fabrics, pulling the scraps along the way. Then the fabric will be organized and I can cut scraps as I have time. Every time I go up to sort fabric, my definition of "scrap to be cut down" changes. Bigger, smaller, how much I like it, what I think I'll use it for....
Old man Ajax joined me upstairs for a while.
He's a good companion.
And just how am I supposed to classify fabric that looks like this?
How do you deal with scraps?
6 comments:
Steve and I named 2018 the Year of Scrap! We are using our scrap to make 4 scrap quilts. I separate my scrap by color, sometime by project, and my Kona gets grouped together so they don't mingle with lowlife solids!
I have baskets that I put color groupings in, and clear plastic shoeboxes where I might keep scrap from a particular project. Sometimes I like keeping project scraps together because I did a lot of work to pick out fabrics that work great together or they might even be from the same fabric line.
If that last piece was in my stash I would add it to my "fall" pile. I don't have many pieces in there, but figure someday I can make a table runner.
lol. It is an endless job! I am in the process of folding all of my fabrics - one box a day! That would go into my "multi" box.
I have a lot of different categories, but I don't do a lot of scrap cutting a la The Scrap User's System. I'm always afraid that I will want to do a project that takes pieces ever so slightly larger than what I had cut. The only "size" of fabric I keep separate is a box of 2.5" strips left over from a swap and jelly roll strips. I keep my scraps in the 13" scrapbooking boxes and have "large cuts" (WOF chunks, backing scraps, things not quite a FQ)in one and two boxes of smaller scraps sorted by color. With the swaps/bees I have done in the past, keeping things sorted by color was really helpful! Now I participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so each month I just pull out a particular pile of scraps.
Good for you! I also use Bonnie Hunter's method. Size is my predominant criteria for sorting fabric. All 2 1/2", 2", 3.5", 4.5", etc, etc. squares get their own box or baggie. Then, strips are stored by width size. Next, FQs are stored together by color with the exception that bundles by line are kept together. Finally, yardage by color. Most of my scrap squares inevitably end up in a scrap quilt, so, color is secondary. The larger pieces, I look for when I need a certain color. I think organizing by how you use fabric makes the most sense. It's a monstrous job.
Wow! You have a very big task ahead of you. I use my small scraps as leader/enders and was cutting things into 2" squares. This got old after a while and that is what prompted me to get a Go Baby! It really makes quick work of cutting leftover hunks of fabric. GOOD LUCK!
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