For those of you that have followed me for awhile, you know I am an avid scrap quilter. I have shared many times how I build a stash for scrap quilting from yardage. I’ll share that again below. But, what about if you do not have a large stash of fabric or not a lot of cash to spend? You can still have a scrap quilting stash with pre-cuts! Let’s have some fun with this starting now.

Building the Stash from Yardage

If you have yardage in your stash that you are not going to use in one big chunk, like some color prints, you can build a scrap quilting stash by cutting it up into smaller pieces. So here is how I start: I take a yard of fabric and cut it in half to make 2 half-yard pieces (photo on right, below).

I fold up one of those half yards and stash it away. Then the other 1/2 yard is cut along the fold (photo left, below) to make two fat quarters that measure approximately 18 x 22″ (photo on right, below).

I fold up one of those fat quarters and stash that away. The other fat quarter is then cut in half to make two fat eighths that measure approximately 9 x 22″ each (photo on right, below).

I roll up one of those fat eighths (or both if I like the fabric) and stash that. If I am not saving the other fat eighth, I will cut that into strips and store in my strip bin. I use 1 1/2″ and 2 1/2″ strips the most so that’s the size I cut.

Building a Scrap Stash from Pre-cuts and Leftovers

Leftovers: Not a yardage collector? Even if you are not, every time you are cutting out a new project there’s an opportunity to build a stash. Once you are done cutting the pieces from a designated piece of fabric, take what’s left over and cut it up right away to your stash of strips or pre-cut squares. Here’s my strip storage:

If I have a piece of fabric that is too small for good strips or is an odd shape, I have tubs of that fabric for future fabric appliqué projects. Here’s one of those:

Fat Quarters: Consider buying a stack of fat quarters from a quilt shop so you have a variety of color prints for your scrap stash. Keep some of them whole and store with other fat quarters, cut them into smaller fat eighths, or cut them into strips and put them in a strip stash!

Other Pre-cuts: Some of the other types of pre-cuts sold at quilt shops are charm packs, layer cakes and jelly rolls. Buying some jelly roll collections is an easy way to replenish your 2 1/2″ strip stash. You can also cut charm squares into 1 1/2″ or 2 1/2″ squares and layer cakes into 10″ long strips of either 2 1/2 or 1 1/2″ width.

Using these Pre-cut Stashes

These stashes can be used to create borders like those below.

First, borders with squares – the most common being a checkerboard style:

The squares for these borders can be made super scrappy by cutting squares from a stash of charm squares or you can make strips sets with strips and chop them up to make checkerboard borders.

Then there are borders from strips. Here are just a few ideas:

On the left is a straight piano key border made with 2 1/2″ strips. On the right is a random strippy border made with 1 1/2″ strips. There are endless options!

Finally, have a party mixing strips and squares:

But wait! It’s not just borders you can make from pre-cut squares and strips. Here’s a selection of blocks that can be created from these:

These are some of the easiest creations. On the left, the typical “patch” blocks: 4-patch, 9-patch and 16-patch. Those can be made from charm squares or from strips sets made from strips. The middle block is, of course, the rail fence made from strips and the block on the right is the courthouse steps version of a log cabin made from a square and strips.

So… dig through your stash and start creating blocks. You will end up with a fun, scrappy quilt. Make a variety of blocks for a sampler!

Finally, here’s some funky blocks I created just for fun with strips and squares:

So, are you inspired yet? The key is you don’t have to only buy yardage and spend a ton of money on just a few color prints… unless you want to. You can get a lot of variety in your stash by shopping the pre-cuts at the quilt shop or making your own from yardage. Have a piece of yardage you bought but don’t have a quilt project to use it all in? Cut that piece up like I showed you above and get that color print sprinkled through your stash.

Comment or ask any questions you would like below and be entered into a drawing for my pattern, Strips & Stars. There’s a lot of scraps that go into this one!

The drawing will be on Monday, November 20th. Good Luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Barb DeVelder!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne