Playing With Scraps

I have been playing with scraps over the last few days.  Why?

1.  I’m starting to think about Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2024;

2.  I want to have a play with crumb piecing;

3.  My little scrap tub on my cutting table is overflowing; and

4. Maybe it is a diversionary tactic to avoid dealing with the mess that is still in my sewing room…….OK, this is the main reason.

My scraps are stored in these little tubs above my sewing area and sorted by colour.  

So, what do I consider a “Scrap”?  For some it is anything smaller than a fat quarter, for others it is much smaller.  For some it is nothing smaller than 2 1/2”, for others nothing smaller than 1 1/2”.  For some everything is cut into specific sizes.  For me it is much less rigid.  Most of my “Scraps” are less than the size of a layer cake.  They are not cut to specific sizes.  They can be strips, chunks, triangles and some are really small, as they are still useable for appliqué.  However, they have just been chucked into the tubs and aren’t terribly user friendly.  I have been using any pieces that I can in the RSC over the last couple of years, so there aren’t many left.   I do have one tub with scraps of binding and some 2 1/2” short strips.

I have wanted to try some crumb piecing for quite a while, but can never decide what size to make and how I would then use the finished blocks.  In the end I decided to just have a play and decided to make the blocks six inches square.  That is easy to square up with my little ruler and small rotating cutting mat.  I just pulled random pieces out and was very happy with the result.  Best of all, it was fun.

What did become apparent was that I really needed to get the scraps a bit more organised, so I pressed them all and then put them back into the tub, sorted into large chunks, 5”, 4 1/2”, 4”, 3 1/2”, 3”, 2 1/2”, 2”, 1 1/2”, random strings and then all the tiddly bits were put into a zip lock bag.  Some of those sizes only had one or two pieces, but at least they were in some sort of order.  I didn’t cut anything down, except to trim little bits. I was surprised at how many random strings I had.

Now that it was in some sort of order I made another block, this time an improv log cabin.  I really like how it turned out.  This makes good use of all those random strings, as I don’t want to make any diagonal string blocks at this stage.

All enthused, I then started to press and organise some other colours.  I don’t have much orange or purple, so not sure what I can do with those, probably just let them breed some more.

I was surprised how much yellow I have, so made a couple more blocks.

I have quite a bit of green, but I know I have to cut lots of leaves for the Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt that is waiting patiently for me to get back to it, so I  pressed and sorted them but didn’t make any blocks.

The tub with the most scraps was unsurprisingly the blue one.  There were so many tiddly pieces that I actually sorted them into triangles and other bits.

I decided that I would sort the blues into dark, light and aqua/turquoise and make a block of each.

It created another mess along the way.

I made a dark and an aqua block and decided to go with the log cabin style again and in the end struggled to have enough long strings for the final sides.  I still have to have a go with the light blue scraps.  

The next aqua and dark blocks will have to be random crumb piecing.  There are so many little triangles that I could have a session of just creating tiny improv HST to use.

That’s as much as I have done at this stage.  I did enjoy it and hope to do some more.

Did I do anything with the little scrap bin on the cutting table that is overflowing?  Mmmm, nope.  It is still sitting there.

What will I do with the crumb pieced blocks?  I dunno.  Maybe I could add points and turn them into twelve inch star blocks?  Maybe I could add a shadow on two sides?  There are endless possibilities.  There are still plenty of little scraps to play with.  I’d like to use a lot of them.  I’m not sure what I will do with the black/grey, brown/tan and low volume scraps.  I think they can just breed for the moment.

As far as making scraps, I think that when I need a couple of 2 1/2” squares of tone on tone fabrics, I may cut a complete strip off the fat quarter and start to accumulate those strips for future use.  We’ll see.