This week was another meeting of our quilting group and I took along my batik strips to cut into HST's. It was good to listen in to others whilst cutting and picking up some tips along the way. One lady passed on the name of an American quilter called Bonnie Hunter, suggesting that I took a look at her web site as she had some good ideas for using up scraps. So once home, that was what I did. Funnily enough I had at some point visited her web pages but not really taken note. This time, I did read through how she organises her scraps and decided that I would do something similar. It has taken me two days on and off to go through all my scraps and either cut them into strips or squares and put them into organiser drawers that I already had. My sister in law had given me quite a few empty square boxes that at one time had held sweets you buy in bulk - and these stack quite well and fit in one of my cupboards that I am using for just fabric. I like Bonnie's idea that you don't really need to keep buying material to add to your stash....it can stay in the shop.....and you buy what you need when you need it. As a newbie quilter I have been put off by the sheer cost of decent fabric here in the UK compared to the cost in the USA. I could not see myself building up a huge stash of fabric unless someone was giving it away! Bonnie's suggestions of how to use your offcuts and scraps are very good and I know I shall now plan on making some 'scrappy' blocks with a view to using up all my scraps. Even scraps have a value when you think how much a yard/metre you have paid for the material in the first place!
So now I have sorted into 1.5", 2", 2.5" 3.5 and above, bitty scraps, orphan blocks, and a box of my current HST's project. I also have a box with 'one off' 2" & 2.5" from a swap. The green tray a blocks from work in progress on my projects. I just have one more small box of off cuts and spare blocks from my previous two quilts - so they won't take long to sort.
So my plan now is to start making some blocks from the absolute scraps. I will make one block every time I sit down to sew something as part of my current project and see where that gets me. There are loads of ideas on Bonnie's site to inspire me. I just need to work out what size to make my blocks!