The other day, I wrote about what I accomplished at Sew Day. I worked on cutting up scraps into shapes and sizes I need for future projects. A big blob of unorganized scraps makes me anxious. It also takes up a lot of space on my sewing table.
I generally keep a list of shapes I need/want to cut from scraps and yardage on my cutting table. This list includes shapes I use all the time such as 2.5 inch squares as well as special pieces I need for certain quilts.
As part of my preparation for the 2025 quilt- and bagmaking – year, I looked at my list of shapes. I found that I didn’t update my list in 2023 or 2024. That was the first step. This year, I will cut a variety of shapes for projects known and unknown.
As usual, I will cut 2.5 inch squares. I find I dive into those bins pretty frequently. Old Town needed a bunch of 2.5 inch squares. I didn’t need to cut any, because I had the right colors in my 2.5 inch bin.
In general, however, I cut two sets of 2.5 inch squares. One is for my own projects, like Old Town, and the other is for donation blocks. Often, when I cut from scraps, I cut one for myself and several for donations. It depends on how big the scrap is and how much I like the fabric.
I plan to make another Scrap Dash quilt, so I am hunting and gathering 1.5 x 2.5 inch squares as well as 1.5 inch squares.
I like the donation quilt I made with 4.5 inch x 8.5 inch rectangles, so I am collecting more of those. I am not cutting those sizes from yardage. I only cut these when I have large scrap. I do get them sometimes.
I am also still cutting 2 inch x 2 inch cool colors for Blueberry Lemonade. I really need to start making that quilt. I probably have enough squares to make two quilts!!
When I find scrap triangles, I make them into HSTs. I have a lot of randomly sized HSTs. I plan to put backgrounds strips around each unit and then put them all together into a quilt.
I also cut 5″ charms. I haven’t dug into them as much, but they also come in useful. I will dig into them to make the sashing for Old Town.
I have to be more diligent about cutting for the Spin Wheel quilt. This pattern is the Fons & Porter Spin Wheel, 1200 series, episode 1201. I need to work on gathering background fabrics, which are the triangles, but I can use squares and then cut the triangles.
2.5 x 4.5 blue rectangles for a Blue Rectangles Gradation quilt. You can see some thoughts about this quilt on a recent ‘Dream’ post.
I also cut 2.5 x 4.5 pink rectangles for a Pink Rectangles Gradation quilt. I have a lot of these rectangles as well, so I should get on this quilt also.
When the above are exhausted, I cut strips. I use these for the Color Strip and Chunk quilts.
This seems like a lot of work and, to some extent it is, but it is also useful. For me, it is pre-cutting or processing. Cutting is my least favorite part of quiltmaking, so having shapes already cut is great for me.
