Taming Down the Stash with Bonnie and Marie

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  And welcome to the last purple week for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have loved making quilt blocks with all the wonderful shades of purple.

Regular readers of Treadlestitches will know I babysit three of my grandchildren while their parents work.

Running after this adorable bucket head and his brothers keeps me pretty busy.  So I when I get time to quilt, I need to be as efficient as possible.

My favorite projects are charity quilts for children, and I love to buy the fabrics for these quilts at rummage sales, flea markets, etc.  Processing these fabrics into my stash takes more effort than if I had just bought them at the quilt store, but it's worth it for the variety and the price.

Thank goodness for people like Bonnie Hunter (who pioneered the scrap user's system) and Marie Kondo, author of The Magic of Tidying Up.  Today I'm going to show you how I process a big haul, like the one I wrote about last week.

First, I wash all the larger pieces.  I'm removing sizing, if the fabric was never washed before.  Some fabric softeners make me sneeze, and there are occasionally pieces that smell like cigarette smoke or that unmistakable basement odor, so everything except small scraps gets run through the washing machine.  I use a fragrance-free detergent.

Then I fold the fabric, more or less following the Marie Kondo method (called Konmari) that I learned about in this video, from Stephanie Soebbing of Quilt Addicts Anonymous.

In the photo above, the fat quarters are on the left, then half yards, then one yard pieces, then multiple yards.  All of these measurements are approximate.

Once the fabrics are washed and folded, they get filed into bins.  These bins hold the fat quarters.  They are arranged by color.  Right now I have a big bunch of multicolor fabrics that I'm not sure what to do with.  (Any ideas?)

These are the half yard baskets, similar to the ones in the video.  You can tell at a glance I need more red and more purple.

The one yard pieces are in bigger bins.  They're very good for borders on children's quilts.

The biggest pieces, more than 1 yard each, go in these soft-sided bins on the closet shelf.  They're great for backing, but also for borders or binding.  After recent shopping trips, I'm stocked up here.

Now, what about the scraps?

I divide the scraps into big scraps (on the right) and small scraps (on the left).  Big scraps are at least 6 in. wide, and could be cut into a variety of sizes, so I leave them to cut when I need them.  Small scraps are less than 6 in. wide.  (In the center are two packs of Halloween charm squares, which I just filed in the charm square box.)

Big scraps are rubber banded by color and put in this big basket.  Then when it's purple month, I grab out that bunch and cut what I need.  Also, if I use most of a fat quarter and only have a big scrap left, it goes here.

The little scraps are cut into strips or squares and rectangles, depending on the size of the scrap or any projects I'm cutting for.  I modified Bonnie Hunter's excellent scrap users system to suit how I sew.  The sizes I cut are (from left to right), 5 in., 4.5 in., 3.5 in., 2.5 in., 2 in., and 1.5 in.  I have drawers or small bins for each of the strip sizes, and boxes for each size square.

When I trim the scraps, I'm usually cutting them to the largest size I can.  If however I think I would use two 2.5 in. strips rather than a 5 in. strip, then that's what I cut.  I'm always thinking about what I'm planning to make and what I already have. 

Strips and squares etc. are stored in the closet. 

When I'm cutting for a scrap quilt, I start with scrap user's system, then go to the big scraps, then to fat quarters, and so on.  

The bins are stored on a book shelf, in a dark corner of the sewing room, where they are not exposed to sunlight.

It's taken me a while to change to this system, and I find that I really like it.  I can see what I have (and what I lack), and seeing the bright colors is inspiring, even on a rainy day.

More positivity blocks for Sew Preeti's Quilt Along!  Sorry the photo is so dark, it's a rainy morning here.

The grand kids were having a pool party last Sunday at our Father's Day cookout. The pool was mostly for Baby Buddy, but he wasn't having it.

The summer is going by so fast!  Next Sunday will be July 4th already!

Here's wishing you a happy week ahead.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out the linky parties, you are cordially invited!

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Suddenly, It's Summer

Hello, and welcome to Treadlestitches!
Those of us who love the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are saying goodbye to the color orange today, and it just worked out that I finished this little quilt in time for the blog.  It's not totally orange, but orange is a color that just leaps out at you.  In a good way.

One of my friends on the Charity Quilt Committee gave me the squares of construction vehicle print from the charity stash to make a small quilt.  I used scraps of yellow and orange from my scrap user bins to sew the 4 patches for a very simple design.

Check out the back!  I didn't know this fabric was readily available at the local chain store until I went looking for something else.
I hardly ever use black in children's quilts (just a hang up I have) but this time it really went with the print.  The inner border is cobbled together from a fat quarter, and the binding is something I've had forever.
The quilt will go to a child who needs it.

I mailed off the quilts for the Hands 2 Help project on Thursday.  There are six baby quilts in this box!  I couldn't figure out how to get them all in there, until I remembered Marie Kondo's way of folding shirts.  It worked!  And it saved me having to scrounge up another box or two.  This lady is a genius.  I should send her a thank you note.

In other news, we got the garden in finally.  My very dear hubby made the frame for the raised bed and hauled bag after bag of raised bed soil in the wheel barrow.  Since it's so late in the season, we bought plants instead of seed.

Here's our garden helper.  (Or maybe our garden elf?)

This is the view at the local greenhouse.  We took Little Buddy on a "field trip" here to get the plants. 

The rhubarb grew very well this year, with all the rain we've had.  Little Buddy "helped" me cut it, and  it's still sitting here on the table, waiting for me to deal with it this morning.  There is a small canning job in my future.  And maybe a pie, if Hubby is willing to set aside his diet for a bit.

Yesterday's weather was what I think of as perfect, 82 degrees and sunny, with a slight breeze.  I hung the sheets on the line, worked outside a bit, went to the playground with Little Buddy, and after lunch we went out on the porch barefoot and had a popsicle.  Today's weather is not so perfect, but it's a reminder to enjoy what we have when we have it.

This week, I'm hoping you have time to smell the roses.  Or the rhubarb.

Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at So scrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Cynthia at Oh Scrap