Summer of Scraps Part 1 - Organization

Summer has officially started here in the south and it's hot! I have been thinking a lot about my scraps and the fact that even though I have made 2 scrappy quilts this year already, it just isn't making a dent in my bins. So I thought I would do a scrappy summer of making quilts. It will be fun and it will use what I have! Less money out the door is a good thing.  (I'm not going to count quilt backs, but I will make every effort to either use my large pieces or piece a back together.)

I plan on sharing what I'm making along with some ideas for using up different kinds of scraps. Some ideas floating in my head include using rainbow scraps, one color themed scraps, just a few colors scraps, scrappy backgrounds, strings, ugly fabrics, and solid scraps. We'll see how it goes! I have a couple scrappy quilts started and several more planned out, plus I will be sharing ones I've made in the past. I hope to inspire you to dig into your scraps and use them up this summer!

I thought I would start this series with how I cut and organize my scraps. I keep all my scrappy prints in these art bins from Joanns. I have 10 of them stored under my ironing board, and I just love them. I keep 3 sizes because that is what I like to use. You could do more if you were so inclined. All of my scraps are organized by color. I cut 5" and 2.5" strips first. Anything smaller than that goes in the string bin.

I have 2 bins of 2.5" squares. This one is probably my most used. I like to find quilt patterns that use these little squares and pair it with a background (or not) and make some order out of it. I just recently made the scrap snap quilt completely out of rainbow scraps.

(red, orange, yellow, and green)

 (pink, purple, and blues)

(brown, gray, black, white, and any multicolored fabric)

I have 3 bins of 2.5" strips. To be put in this bin the strips must be at least 13" long. If there is less than 3 or 4 inches of fabric left when I'm cutting fabric for a quilt, I will just cut the scrap to 2.5" strip and put it in these bins. It's very handy to have a 2.5" strip when making a jelly roll quilt pattern and you just need a couple more strips. 

(red, orange and green)

 (pink, purple, multi, and yellow)

(all shades of blue) 

(black, gray, brown, and beige)

The last size I keep is 5" squares. These are so handy because you can use them as is or you can cut them into 4 - 2.5" squares. They can also be trimmed into 2- 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles without wasting too much fabric. I bet you can guess by the 5" square what my favorite and most used color is!

Next week I will be sharing a quit I'm making with red, orange, and aqua scraps if time allows. I'm hoping to get a couple quilts done every month, but sometimes my plans are bigger than what my time allows! This one is going together quickly though. Plus I plan on sharing some great quilts I found on Pinterest to get you inspired. The "controlled" scrappy quilt is one that only has a few colors and has some background that brings order to the quilt. 

You are more than welcome to join me this summer and get your scraps under control and make some beautiful quilts at the same time! If you're on Instagram I'm using #summerofscraps. You can also tag me at #theflemingsnine with your scrappy quilts. I'd love to see them!