Allowing for Randomness

In my continued "cleaning house mode", I guess it must be, I decided to tackle my scrap bins today. Not entirely sure why the mood struck, but hey, I'll ride it as long as it lasts.

I believe I've mentioned before my desire to keep my stash under control...at least until my kids move out of the house and I have access to a couple of new closets! But even so, I'm not much of a collector; I tend to be pretty good about sorting and getting rid of stuff in general. I hate useless accumulation--it slows me down and annoys me. So although my stash is definitely growing, it's doing so quite slowly and it still fits onto the two shelves I have designated for it (even if I have to occasionally use a little judicious stuffing here and there). I am actually pretty proud of myself for not letting my stash get out of hand.

Since the beginning of my quilting days a few years ago, I could hear generations of quilters' voices in my head sighing, shaking their heads in disbelief, or gasping in astonishment at my wastrel ways every time I started to toss out scraps from my projects. Yes, I know: to be a true quilter, shouldn't I save even the tiniest corner of fabric in case it should come in useful? How dare I toss out that 3" square! Someday that might be exactly the 3" square I need!

Problem is, I do extremely little applique and I'm not a big fan of true scrappy quilts. (Nicely color-coordinated scraps are one thing. But true scrappy is just too much mayhem for my orderly little mind.) So scraps were accumulating and not being used. I relegated my smallest scraps to my "tails" bin--the scraps you use to start a chain-stitching row. But I replace them almost as fast as I get through them so there's not a tremendous sense of accomplishment--no piles getting noticeably smaller, no sense of making headway. Just a constancy of fabric presence in the bin on the side of my sewing table.

I have recently gotten into the whole "jelly roll" thing, though--2 1/2" strips. I've gained new appreciation for scrappy using jelly rolls, but the jelly rolls are usually pretty coordinated so my orderly self can still be happy. Today, I thought, "Why don't I just start slicing up some strips out of the scraps? At least they'll be in some shape to use more quickly that way."

So I pulled a book by one of my fave designers off the shelf (M'Liss Rae Hawley) to see what size she based most of her scrap quilts on, and started going to town. 2 1/2" strips, 1 1/2" strips, 7" long with varying width strips for a particular pattern in her scrap quilt book that I decided I liked, all starting to accumulate in newly neatly labeled bins.

OK, so I only got through about 6 or so folds of fabric in the time I had--some of them were much larger than I thought they were. But it's a start. Not sure what to do with the fabrics I no longer love--so I'm cutting them into strips and hoping that they'll be "ooh--just the perfect touch!" when I get into some future project. But perhaps now that they're cut into standard sizes I could also pass them onto other quilters at silent auctions or guild give-aways more quickly. A small handful have been set aside untouched because they're in colors that might work for an applique Christmas project I have on my to-do list. But the rest? Hopefully within a couple of weeks, if I stay diligent, my current scraps will all be chopped neatly into easy-to-use sizes and ready for projects in the future.

Somehow scrappy seems less intimidating when it's neat and tidy and ready to go. I can allow for randomness in my life...as long as it's organized.