Dealing With the Scraps Before They Become More Scraps

After cutting all the strips for my two new scrappy quilts, I was left with a collection of little odds and ends….

You know the ones—those short pieces that aren’t long enough for the current project but are still far too useful to throw away.

Normally, I would toss them into the scrap basket and promise myself that I would deal with them later.

We all know what later means.

This time, I decided to deal with them before they became another basket full of scraps waiting for my attention.

I stacked 5 of these strips on top of one another, and evened up one edge….

Then I made two cuts… one at 5 inches and one at 2.5 inches…

I KNEW that the bottom cut of 2.5 inches would result in a perfect square while SOME of the top squares would be big enough….but not all of them.

At the end of the cutting session, I had a nice set of squares…..

These went into my 2.5-inch box, the “crumbies” found their way into the crumb drawers, and all I was left with was this small pile of offcuts…..

AND NO…these weren’t thrown away, but added to my bin of scraps headed for dog beds.

NOTHING IS WASTED!!

And just like that, the leftovers were sorted and ready to use.

No new pile.

No overflowing scrap basket.

No future afternoon spent cutting up fabric that I could have handled in just a few minutes today.

Honestly, this should be my standard method every time I finish cutting fabric.

Should be.

Isn’t always.

But perhaps if I do it often enough, it will eventually become a habit. In the meantime, I’m enjoying my neat little stacks of 2½-inch squares—and feeling unusually pleased with myself for staying ahead of the scraps for once!

A Little Quilting Math

In Thursday’s post, I admitted that I had added a second scrap quilt to my project list. Apparently, one new scrap quilt wasn’t enough!

The two quilts will have very different looks. The Hunter’s Star will use bright scraps against a dark background….

…while the Celtic Knot will feature deeper, richer colors with a tan background….

By the way, I have NO idea where this fabric came from but there are 4-yards, and I will NOT look an unknown “gift-horse” in the mouth!!

Before I started cutting, I needed to answer one important question:

How long did each scrap need to be?

Calculating the Hunter’s Star Scraps

The Hunter’s Star quilt will have 80 blocks, with eight star sections in each block.

That means I need:

80 blocks × 8 sections = 640 star sections

Using the Bonnie Hunter Essential Triangle Tool, I can cut four star sections from each fabric. Dividing 640 by four told me that I would need approximately 160 different fabrics.

Each strip needs to be about 7–8 inches long to give me enough room to cut the four sections.

So, my Hunter’s Star cutting requirement is:

• Approximately 160 bright fabrics
• One 2½-inch-wide strip from each fabric
• Each strip approximately 7–8 inches long

Calculating the Celtic Knot Scraps

The Celtic Knot uses a different combination of pieces from each fabric. For each color, I need:

• One 6½-inch piece
• Two 2½-inch pieces

The exact total is 11½ inches. I rounded that up to 12 inches and then added another inch to allow for trimming, uneven scrap edges, and the occasional less-than-perfect cut.

That brought my final cutting length to:

13 inches from each fabric

The quilt will use approximately 100 different fabrics in the deeper, richer color palette.

Now I had two very specific measurements to keep in mind as I work through my scraps:

• Bright scraps: 7–8 inches long for the Hunter’s Star
• Deeper-colored scraps: 13 inches long for the Celtic Knot

Of course, this also means that I have officially turned “playing with scraps” into a math problem.

Fortunately, it is the fun kind of math!

At the end of my two cutting sessions, I had all of the strips cut and ready to go…..

The Hunter Star Brights…..

….and the Celtic Knot Deep colors…..

Note to self….that bright yellow may have to go!!

Do you calculate exactly what you need before sorting your scraps, or do you simply start cutting and hope for the best?

…………………………………………………………….

“Let’s Get Scrappy is about how to decide, not about what to make.”

Let’s Get Scrappy is an on-demand online course that helps quilters overcome decision fatigue and finally make sense of their overflowing scrap bins. With four hours of step-by-step video instruction, you’ll learn simple systems for organizing, piecing, and pressing your scraps—so you can stop overthinking and start sewing beautiful, coordinated quilts with confidence and joy.