Hi everyone! Before we get into our topic for the week, I wanted to do a wrap-up of the show I just attended. I was a vendor at the Omaha Quilter’s Guild quilt show. It was really fun partaking in this show and the quilt guild members were fun to work with! Here’s how my booth looked:

Did I see you at the show? Also, this guild has some really cool quilt racks for displaying the quilts. They are very tall and made of wood. Large quilts can be hung without hitting the floor!

Now on to the topic of the week. The reason I picked it this week is because the question I was asked most often at the show was “how do you mix all those colors to make great scrap quilts?” This week I’ll talk about building the stash and next week I’ll cover pulling fabrics for a project.

The first key to successful scrap quilts is to have a stash of a lot of smaller pieces of fabric to choose from when making these quilts. How I achieve that is by cutting down larger pieces of fabric into assorted smaller pieces so I have that color and print in about every size of fabric. There have been fabric pieces I have had in my stash for a while but did not use until I cut it up into smaller yardage!

So here is what I do: I take a yard of fabric and cut it in half to make 2 half-yard pieces.

I fold up one of the 1/2 yards for storage and then take the other 1/2 yard and cut it in half on the fold to make 2 fat quarters that measure 18″ x approximately 22″.

I fold up one of those fat quarters up for storage, then take the other fat quarter and cut it into 2 fat eighths that measure 9 x 22″.

Now, I fold my fat eights in a unique way. I found if I just flat folded them like the 1/2 yard and fat quarters that they didn’t stand up well in my storage bin. So, I roll them!

This is how I store the rolled fat eighths:

Much more convenient! Now as for the 1/2 yards and fat quarters, I store them in labeled tubs. Here’s a photo of one of my fat quarter/1/4 yard tubs:

I also include pieces of fabric that are less than a 1/2 yard like 1/3 yard cuts. 

Finally, if I am cutting out a project and I have a piece of fabric left that is smaller than 1/8 yard or a fat eighth, I cut that into strips. I use 2 1/2″ and 1 1/2″ strips the most so that is what I cut. Here is how I store those:

Easy to see and ready for that scrap quilt! Next week I will cover how I pull fabrics together for a scrap quilt. You’d be surprised that colors you think will not look good together actually do once they are pieced together in a quilt.

Share with me your fabric storage ideas and be entered in a drawing for a free pattern for my newest scrap quilt: Follow the Stars.

Drawing will be on July 8th so you have plenty of time to enter!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne