Use your fabric scraps!

This week I helped to teach a class with ideas for using your scraps with the very sweet Marilyn Yerkes at our local quilt shop. We were asked about doing this right after Christmas and it has been so motivating for me to get my scraps organized and to start making projects with them in preparation.  

Above is my progress with my American Jane scraps quilt. I’ve got more blocks assembled and I think I’m going to make it twice as big, at least. Finally giving those scraps a good home (because there are a lot of them)! This quilt was inspired by a project in this book and this quilt by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts.

Of course I only took two (really poor-quality) pictures during the class. sigh.

This quilt is by Marilyn. She used a tutorial from the Missouri Quilt Co. and 3 Dudes Quilt Shop that’s on YouTube. It’s so cool!

It was very fun to share ideas and projects with other quilting friends and I figured I’d share some of the ideas with you too!  I shared some of my recent scrap projects. (Including this quilt finished. I love it.  Am now working on the pattern and will share when both are ready!)

Here are some of the other ideas we shared. Some of them you’ve probably heard of dozens of times, but just in case, here they are all together. (Pictures used with permission.)

Scrap fabric organization: The first thing I recommend is organizing your scraps by color. It’s the simplest way to organize your scraps and it will make them SO much more appealing to work with. I bought a couple of sets of those clear, plastic drawers as a simplest possible see-thru storage option.

My second tip for scrap organization: Get rid of the scraps that are no longer inspiring. Clean out and purge.

I have more details about sorting and organizing scraps here.

Quilt-as-you-go TableRunner (mine)

GrannySquare Quilt Block Tutorial from Blue Elephant Stitches

String x-block tutorial from Leedle Deedle Quilts

 Strings block tutorial from Film in the Fridge

50+ Fabric Stash Buster Ideas: Lots of purses, pin cushions, needlebooks, etc. from Tipnut.com

Scrap Jar Stars by Amber of Gigi’s Thimble quilt patterns (blog: A Little Bit Biased)

Ticker Tape Quilt by Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts


Scappy Fabric Garland from Cluck Cluck Sew

Gift Tags from A Spoonful of Sugar

For keeping track of more Scraps ideas, I’ve started a Scraps pinboard that I update regularly, if you want to follow it for the latest projects and ideas:

Have fun! And Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  Those silly Leprechauns finally got their act together this year and remembered to pull some fun little tricks at our house. Last year they were pathetic slackers. Loosers.