Yesterday, I shared my task of the day. Cleaning leftover fabric off my work surfaces. If I work on a lot of different projects over a period of time, sometimes I get a bit lazy and just stack it up. So, because of this, I decided to share my fabric stash tips that will prepare you for jumping into making that next scrap quilt. Time for tips!

Getting Started

The key, at least for me, is to have some organization in my fabrics. That way, it’s easier for me to know what fabrics I have and what I need. Having fabrics flung all over the place doesn’t help! Here’s a little of what I started with yesterday:

And here is my organization in progress. I sorted fabrics by size and color. I found out I had a lot of 1/2 yards, fat 1/4s and fat 1/8s lying around! 

Then it was down to the piece of fabric that did not fit into any of the size categories I mentioned above. If a piece did not measure up to at least a fat 1/8, then it’s time to cut those pieces into strips for my collection.

I collect 2 1/2 and 1 1/2″ strips because those are the widths I use the most for blocks, borders and bindings. I press those random pieces of fabric and then cut them into strips instead of tossing them into a tub. They’re ready to use this way. 

By the way, I used these strips to create the block from my newest quilt project (heading to the quilter this month):

All the pieces for these blocks in this quilt were cut from 1 1/2 and 2 1/2″ strips!

I also found pieces of fabric of over 1 yard that I knew I wasn’t going to use in just one project. I knew I wouldn’t use them for a background or a border on a larger quilt, so what did I do with those? I cut them into smaller pieces, effectively making my own pre-cuts, so I can use that same piece of fabric in several different projects.

Here’s an example:

Out of 1 yard of fabric, I am able to cut a 1/2 yard, a fat 1/4 and two fat 1/8s. If I didn’t want two fat 1/8s (the rolled pieces), I can cut that second one into 1 1/2″ and 2 1/2″ strips.

Organization and Storage

So now that I have all that done, how do I organize and store everything? It’s just as important to organize the fabrics once I’m done with the sorting and cutting, or else all that work was wasted time.

First up, the larger pieces of fabric.

On the left are some of my tubs with the 1/2 yards and 1/4 yards stored by color. On the right is how I store the rolled fat 1/8s. By the way, I like to roll the fat 1/8s because it’s easier to store them this way than folded and tucked into a tub. They’re too small when folded to stay organized in the tub.

Now for the strips, this is how I store them:

I found these shallow tubs to keep the strips from fraying and then I created sections by using some acid free cardboard to partition the bin. There are now some of these shallow bins on the market that are already partitioned. If you can find those, that would make this task easier.

Using Strips

Using the Strips is the really fun part. Like I showed you above in my new quilt, you can play with them to make all different types of blocks. A few of my favorite blocks can be made with strips, like log cabin and stars (these with checkerboards, also made with strips):

Strips also come in handy making unique borders for quilts. One way to use up fabric and make your quilt bigger. These are a few borders I’ve created from strips:

Finally, you can use these strips for binding. I use the 1 1/2″ strips for single-fold binding and the 2 1/2″ strips for double-fold binding.

Last Tip

So what do you do with that fabric that you don’t want? The fabric that you bought and can’t remember why you liked it? We’ve all been there! Here’s my stack accumulated while organizing:

I will be donating this stack to my church group that sews quilts for people in need. Perhaps your church or another area group does this and accepts donations. That way the fabric isn’t collecting dust in your stash and it’s not wasted either.

That’s it for this week. Come back next week for some scrap quilting tips.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne