What to do with all of this?

I wrote earlier this year that changes were coming in 2013.  Over the last couple of months I have found myself going back and forth on what I want do with my business and blog.  In ~seven weeks I will be wearing so many hats, good thing I can take challenge on head first.

Mom, health educator, and small business owner will be a lot to handle.  So I decided to let you guys in on a secret.  I cheat!  There I said it.  I cheat when sewing.  Over the last few years I have been using Moda precuts to create many of my projects.  Even making some of my own with varying lines.  These quilts are made with just 5″ squares.

nautical baby boy quilt

neutral boys quilt

Mostly the same fabrics but very different looks.

Precuts are a great way to sample an entire fabric line with minimal investment.  My favorites are charm packs, jelly rolls, and fat quarters.  I may have a few in my stash currently.

Many charm packs
Many charm packs
jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, and a variety of other goodies.
jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, and a variety of other goodies.

Last week I posted about my scrap management project.  Oddly, this blog post was in my inbox the same week as well.  4 Easy Steps to De-Clutter and Get Healthy.  Good timing.  Maybe this project won’t help me get healthy physically but can affect my mental health, knowing I have checked something off my list.  Plus organization feels great.

Throughout the next couple of months I want to showcase projects to really use up my scrap bins and what I have. After this weekend’s adventure of packing up all my fabric into 5 large totes, one thing is clear.  There is ALOT of fabric in my stash.

If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed an influx of ideas on the boards.  Can’t wait to share the projects completed from just the stash.

Scrap Management

My scraps are taking over my sewing space.  It was verging on hoarding level, seriously.  With the upcoming move of the sewing space to another area in the house something had to be done.  My goal for February is to have my fabric and scraps better organized.

I created a system to go through all my scraps and sort them.  Big pieces of some of my favorites…keep, solids…keep, and everything else was cut into squares.  Given my love of precuts, this made it much easier to select sizes.  Squares were cut into 2″, 2.5″, and 5″ for my sanity in storing them.

scrap squares

cutting scraps

Thanks to the dollar store for the lime green buckets below.  Should make managing my precut sizes much easier.

scrap bins

While going through all of my scraps there had to be a cut off on what to keep.  Honestly, I feel bad throwing some stuff out.  It’s become apparent I can’t keep everything, I will never get around to doing something with it.

Thanks to my hubby for letting me take over his bar in the basement for this project.  If he wanted me around this weekend, it was his best bet.

I would love to hear how you handle scraps?  At what point do you decide to keep, cut, and/or purge?

scrap squares