Little Piece Love

by Gina

There are all sorts of sewists out there. Those who make quilts, those who make clothes, those who make anything and everything.  There are pattern followers and others who prefer to do it on their own.  One thing we all have in common is we end up with scraps.

I have limitations wiht just how small of a piece I’ll hang onto, as I imagine most of you do.  If you’ve never been a scrap keeper, I challenge you to start and offer you some guidelines to help keep it managable. 

• Think about how small of a piece you’ll be happy to work wtih—maybe it needs to be at least 2” wide, maybe 4”.  What you like to make or want to start making if you don’t already, will influence this.
• Have a designated space to keep them and as the collection grows you can organize them by size and/ or color, if that’s helpful.
• Keep your eyes and imagination open for ways to use them.

Here are a few examples of ways we’ve used some small pieces we’ve loved.

I recently made a simple baby quilt for some friends and used a sample of a Liberty of London print I had from a swatch book as the focal point.

We were cleaning house around the store and I passed along the dated shot cotton color card to April and she made up this amazing bag with all those itty bitty pieces.

During our staff retreat Hannah whipped up a tank out of Liberty and used a little scrap from it as an accent on a dyed linen wrap dress she made.  A sweet addition to a lovely handmade piece. 

And, for some quilting inspiration, I continue to be drawn to the Gumdrop design in Sunday Morning Quilts.

Want more ideas?  Just ask next time you’re in.  Many of our books include great projects for small pieces and if you’re already a scrap lover, you’re in luck!  We’ll have a handful of scrap bags available starting today.  Let your imagination run wild!