Fabric Scraps Obsession, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy September 2024: The Curation of Scraps

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong run by Kate and Gun. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.

This month’s ScrapHappy post will be sort of lame because I’ve been doing everything but working on textile projects it seems! By the time you read this post (yes I am writing this ahead of time while on vacation with my sister in Virginia) I will just be returning home from another trip. We’ve also been working on some house projects and life has just been busy.

Okay so onto my lame post – ha!

The Curation of Fabric Scraps

Over the past several years I’ve been working on curating my crazy fabric scrap collection. In my earlier days of quilting I would indiscriminately accept any decent fabric scrap from fellow quilters as evidenced by the quilt (see post “All the Trimmings” is all done) that was made entirely with scraps from fellow quilters, most aquired at quilt retreats:

I used to have all my scraps in a HUGE bin, then I organized them by color into various bins:

Then I organized them by collection/type of fabric.

Then I gave a lot of them away and significant reduced my collection.

Now I have them in a series of baskets, organized by collection or type of fabric in a couple areas of my studio.

A couple months ago I bought some little wooden tags to label some of the baskets.

In addition to those type of scraps labeled above, I also have a collection of “art quilting fabric scraps”, shot cotton scraps, flannel scraps, ethnic fabric scraps, and “general” fabric scraps (doesn’t fit into any category):

And denim scraps:

So that’s my current collection of fabric scraps and I am looking forward to making projects with them. I probably have 1/3 the amount of fabric scraps I used to – yay!

Next month my ScrapHappy post will be about me actually making something again with fabric scraps!

Here are the other bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,Lynn, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

30 thoughts on “ScrapHappy September 2024: The Curation of Scraps”

  1. Very impressive! and such good thinking to tidy them out of the huge bin and into categories that work for you…it’s an evolution for me too. It looks like you are ready to start sewing something delightful!

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  3. Nothing “lame” about this post. Sharing how you contain your scraps is very helpful. It is always handy to see how others manage their scraps so that they can actually use them when the want to.

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  4. I think I’ve only managed to keep my scrap collection under control by designating anything 6 inches square or larger as ‘fabric’ and anything smaller as ‘scrap’. This means my scraps are all small and it’s still possible to corral them in a series of open top boxes. I like your solution for your scraps a lot, especially the lovely tags. I can’t wait to see what your next scrappy project is like!

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  6. You are very organized. I didn´t know there where so many ways to organize scraps 🙂 My scraps are in bags sorted after colors and then I have squares in different sizes. Inspired by you I may take my scraps in one more step. Thank you!

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  11. There is nothing lame in this post. Part of creativity is having access to what you need. Less is more; paring down a collection (which I do with my paper scraps), makes it easier to create.

    I like your circle lables and I’ve always enjoyed using baskets for storage. I use and repurpose them over and over again.

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  12. Even your reduced collection of scraps made me feel breathless, as did your description of collating them.

    I decided a while ago to try to ignore the scraps. When the bag of scraps beside my sewing machine is full, I stuff them into a draught excluder (door snake). These are good scrap gobblers.

    I confess that I do keep a few choice pieces for future projects

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  13. That is an awesome collection! What a great idea to have them organized like that, and I love the wooden tags and the mix of baskets! That’s got to be so helpful in finding your supplies when you are ready to create 🙂

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