Well, that's an attention grabbing title. Let me explain. What I really meant was that I want to make a scrap quit (or 20).
Making scrap quilts takes me way outside my comfort zone. I like things to match. I'm a sucker for coordinated fabrics and usually even have a matching backing from the quilt's fabric collection. This means my scraps keep growing and growing. I currently have a scrap stash that takes up a set of bins that are 20" wide and taller than I am.
Most of my scraps are sorted by fabric collection (if there are enough left that I feel I can make an entire project from it). These I consider somewhat sacred. If I use these I want to make sure I have as much as possible and don't run out one square from finishing a project. Then there are the non-collection based ones which are sorted by color. Two of my friends and I made scrap quilts from the color scrap stash we didn't even make a dent.
Well, its time to use some up and make room for more...there are always more. I've decided to take part in Bonnie Hunter's En Provence scrap mystery quilt. The color scheme is a little scary, but I'm trusting Bonnie that it will work out beautifully in the end.
I set up a few "rules" for myself, partially to give myself that extra push to dig deep into that scrap stash. I'm not going to plan out my fabrics too much in advance. I know I have plenty of all the recommended colors to make the quilt, so I'm going to choose fabrics as I go. I've also been telling myself that "nothing is sacred". This means I'll be dipping into my coordinated fabric collection scraps to get just what I need and make sure I have enough variety. This is hard, real hard and I can't cut into them without discretion, but I keep saying "nothing is sacred" and have cut up some. I also made a couple rules about the remaining cut bits of my scraps that I'll get to later.
Clue 1 involves making 221 neutral 4 patches. I dug into my pile and cut and cut and cut what I thought would make the required number of 4 patches. Ha ha. Once all sewn together I had 89, which is only 40% of what I need. I redoubled my effort and pulled out every single fabric collection bag. I cut and cut some more and am hoping I have enough this time.
Now we get to the explanation for my blog post title. The part about this scrap-busting process that makes me happy is that I've used up the remainders of many fabrics. The hoarder in me is a a little sad that I won't have them to use again, but on the flip side, my stash has taken over WAY too much space and I can't enjoy my fabric, which makes me unhappy. I'm happily using up fabrics and throwing anything away that's less than 2' square. Normally I'd save smaller pieces, but if I've cut it down and its now smaller than 2" square its going in the trash.
Making scrap quilts takes me way outside my comfort zone. I like things to match. I'm a sucker for coordinated fabrics and usually even have a matching backing from the quilt's fabric collection. This means my scraps keep growing and growing. I currently have a scrap stash that takes up a set of bins that are 20" wide and taller than I am.
Most of my scraps are sorted by fabric collection (if there are enough left that I feel I can make an entire project from it). These I consider somewhat sacred. If I use these I want to make sure I have as much as possible and don't run out one square from finishing a project. Then there are the non-collection based ones which are sorted by color. Two of my friends and I made scrap quilts from the color scrap stash we didn't even make a dent.
Well, its time to use some up and make room for more...there are always more. I've decided to take part in Bonnie Hunter's En Provence scrap mystery quilt. The color scheme is a little scary, but I'm trusting Bonnie that it will work out beautifully in the end.
I set up a few "rules" for myself, partially to give myself that extra push to dig deep into that scrap stash. I'm not going to plan out my fabrics too much in advance. I know I have plenty of all the recommended colors to make the quilt, so I'm going to choose fabrics as I go. I've also been telling myself that "nothing is sacred". This means I'll be dipping into my coordinated fabric collection scraps to get just what I need and make sure I have enough variety. This is hard, real hard and I can't cut into them without discretion, but I keep saying "nothing is sacred" and have cut up some. I also made a couple rules about the remaining cut bits of my scraps that I'll get to later.
Clue 1 involves making 221 neutral 4 patches. I dug into my pile and cut and cut and cut what I thought would make the required number of 4 patches. Ha ha. Once all sewn together I had 89, which is only 40% of what I need. I redoubled my effort and pulled out every single fabric collection bag. I cut and cut some more and am hoping I have enough this time.
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| First pile I thought would make 221 four patches. Ha! |
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| I was able to make only 89 on my first try :( |
Now we get to the explanation for my blog post title. The part about this scrap-busting process that makes me happy is that I've used up the remainders of many fabrics. The hoarder in me is a a little sad that I won't have them to use again, but on the flip side, my stash has taken over WAY too much space and I can't enjoy my fabric, which makes me unhappy. I'm happily using up fabrics and throwing anything away that's less than 2' square. Normally I'd save smaller pieces, but if I've cut it down and its now smaller than 2" square its going in the trash.
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| Super Happy for these scraps in the trash! |
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