Simplifying Stash

I am practicing actions that adapt to my own rules. In some ways, creating new actions actually saves my life.

Seriously. When I think of all the time it takes for me to find the right piece of fabric for a project, it just makes sense to keep organizing...and then re-organizing if I find a different way to do things, a better way that works for me in the new moment of my life.

Although I have a Sunday designated to simply things, my fabric scraps box got away from me with my recent 'digging' to match up fabrics for a project. It is still not a perfect storage area for me. And it is weeks away from the Second Sunday Simplify day I set aside to do this work.

I found a number of You Tube videos with ideas for folding fabric to give as gifts, and then found this site that suggested a method for folding to keep in your stash. She uses a ruler and folds all of her pieces on it so they are the same size when she puts it in her storage. fabric folded for stashing

While none of this is new, it is new to me. AND, it almost doesn't apply until I get through the scraps, and cut them to those squares. I've been doing that and almost have a bin filled with 2.5", 3", 4", 5", 6", 8" 10" and strips in 2.5" wide and 5" wide. 

I pulled everything out to sort things together.

I've got a couple of smaller boxes I've also been throwing newly cut squares into. Today seemed like a good day to re-think what I have going and make a plan. Either I make something from all those squares SOON or I need another bin to keep them in. Notes to self help.

The larger box are 2.5" strips. The one next to is are 5" strips. Sometimes I wonder how all this fabric multiplies. The new folding-over-a-ruler technique for the larger scraps will eventually come in handy. For now, these smaller scraps need more management. And they need it now, not in a couple of weeks. I might find something else to do or more of this when the Sunday roles around or keep doing another step on what has started.

(This is not a quilt I am making but one I would like to make with my scraps.) What did get done is the sorting part, with a little bit of cutting. More sorting. As I did it, I started thinking about how I might like to use the scraps in simple quilts. The 10" and 5" squares will go into Twister-type projects. The others...not sure yet. One box of oddities is going to go together as a Gypsy Wife Quilt. There are endless options and ideas if one looks at the images. The idea is to use up all those orphans and odd sizes. Any combination works if you get a yard of a focus color (here it looks like an aqua or teal) and frame some blocks and make strips to carry it through the rest of the piece.The original pattern is a pattern, but I am going to call it a Gypsy Orphan. To that end, I have a box to toss all my oddities or orphans into, including strips that will not work for binding.