More scraps for variety

When I was at Country Concessions in Cookstown, I also picked up a bag of scraps.  The way it goes is that you can fill up a large zip lock bag full of scraps that they have in a basket by the entrance.  If you are smart you fold the scraps as neat as you can and pack them in the bag, you get more fabric that way.  Just keep packing it until you reach the top.  You do have to be able to close the bag.

This was the bag.  The picture below shows you just how much you can get into a bag.  The scraps were no smaller than a 6" square, to almost a fat quarter.  Even laid out on my cutter board it may be difficult to actually see how much fabric there is.  All the fabrics are folded still and fanned out in the three rows.

This will be washed up and trimmed into bow ties and squares and strips for my scrap drawers to add variety to mt scrap quilts. When I pack these bags I take everything, even the fabrics that I don't care for.  It adds the variety in small doses and saves me from the expense of yardage.  If I had to buy yardage to get the amount of variety I like in my quilts, I would have no room to store it and if you don't care for some of the fabrics why would you want the yardage to deal with.

I know it may sound strange to buy stuff you may not like, but besides the variety it also helps me stretch my limits. Sometimes I have to be imaginative and sometimes I end up with pleasing combinations that I would never have achieved otherwise.  You should try it.  Small doses of not so pretty fabric is easy enough to use, and I sometimes think of it as the uglies help the pretties stand out more.