Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.
Today I went to the back room to take a look in my scrap bin to see if there were any scraps of a certain fabric I was short of. I found more than one scrap bin – 4 in fact and that is not counting the one out here in my studio. Oh boy, I certainly do need to go through these bins and get rid of all the small pieces and only keep the ones that are useful and of a certain size or larger.
I am not a scrappy quilt type person so am not really sure why I have even kept the scraps. I guess I thought I might need them some day. Well, maybe but then again maybe not.
In the scraps I found some appliqué pieces that were never used and I brought them out to my studio thinking I would use them and along the way lost one. I can’t find it, have no idea where it went in the short distance I went. It’ll show up when I am least expecting it to. I am guessing they were for a Santa Sac at one time or another. Plus a million little triangles that I guess I thought I would turn into half square triangles one day. And strips of fabric – I could have a jelly roll factory.
So I have made a couple of pieces over the years that would work very well to use up the scraps and the best part is they don’t look scrappy. All of the pieces are Christmas related and how appropriate for this time of year.
A Christmas Wreath
This is a pattern is called Christmas Wreath by Mary Jobe Mason which I found on McCall’s Quilting website several years ago. Lots of half square triangles are used to create this wreath and well worth the effort. It also uses up lots of scraps of green fabric from the scrap bin.
Log Cabin Christmas Tree
This little wall hanging is called O Tannenbaum by Brenda Groelz and I found it on the McCalls Quick Quilts website a few years ago as well. This is a paper pieced project to get all those tiny log cabins just so. Another great piece to use up those scraps on.
Another Christmas Tree
I love this little piece and I made it nice and bright for the Christmas season. I love how the tree is made from stars and balls and how they all mesh together to form the tree. This little appliqué piece I found in the December 2005 Quilter’s World magazine. The piece is called Oh! Christmas Tree by Linda Sullivan.
Now if you are really serious about getting rid of your scraps I would check out Joan Ford’s website and books as she is the queen of using up scraps. She now has two books out and they tell you how to organize your scraps for optimal use as well as provide many patterns for great projects to use up those scraps and stash. Her first book is called Scrap Therapy: Cut the Scraps and her latest book is Scrap Therapy: Scraps Plus One.
Maybe I should give a couple of her patterns a go and use up some of my scraps.
I would love to hear how you use up your scraps or what you do with them. Just leave a comment below.
Happy Quilting!
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