SQUIRRELS (Okay, Scrap Management)

 In the movie UP, the dogs that are supposed to be tracking down the "bird" will every so often blurt out Squirrel.  For a brief moment the dogs are distracted by a passing squirrel.  Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts uses the term Squirrel to refer to thoughts ideas and chores that distract us from the task we are really supposed to be working on.

This week there were squirrels everywhere.  Grand kids dropping in because they need a hug from grandma. Definitely work the distraction. Videos that needed watching for work. Need to do my job if I want to be paid. A trip to the nursery for a couple of new trees. Got to make sure the hubby doesn't blow the budget. And then the biggest there was the biggest squirrel of all. Scraps!

For the past 3 weeks, I have been involved with the Just Get It Done Quilts' Declutter Challenge.  I did pretty well with it.  Some of it was easy because I had already attacked that particular task.  Some of it I kind of cheated on because I was restricting the focus to the studio.  I still have some reorganization to do and well that is going to take a little time.  Funny enough it was a declutter task that became the biggest SQUIRREL.

The plan, at least my plan, was to work for 30-60 minutes a day on the challenge and then do the tasks in my Quilt Journal.  Well, that worked for a little while. Then the task was scrap management.  I thought I had that one in the bag.  I had been trying to stay on top of the scraps ever since I watched Karen Brown's video on Scrap Management.  So I did find a few scraps that I could take care of and mark that particular task off the list.  

Then the next day while were were supposed to be working on sorting batting scraps (I only have one kind and again I had done this task earlier). I dug into my stash for a little bit. I had found a 10" square that I wanted to put up the others. While I was looking for the right bin, I found two bins that I had marked "Scraps". 

I believe what happened is that I had piled stuff into the bins a few years back and never looked at it again. Then I when was trying to inventorying my stash last year, I marked them scraps with out really looking at them.  A lot of the fabric was from a BOM from 2009.  I gave up on that project a couple of years before I got my long arm and I have had Millie for 4 years. So the scraps had been out of my mind for at least that long.

So I dove right in and started slicing and dicing the first bin into my designated sizes.  I have a quilt that I want to do that calls for 3" squares and 3x8" strips. So those were my priority cuts.  Everything that didn't work for those sizes is either cut in 5" squares or strips and 2-1/2'' squares or strips.  So limiting myself to those sizes, I got started. Once I started, it almost became a compulsion to get it done. I was looking forward to coming home after work so I could get back to trimming up the scraps. I was enjoying the whole process.

It took me the better part of three evenings and most of the day Saturday but I got quite a bit done. It was very satisfying to get all of these pieces cut into usable and ready to go squares/strips from what were scraps.  It has gotten me looking forward to doing the quilt. What's more I had always planned to make it completely from scraps. So I am well on my way.  I still have a long way to go but there are lots of projects I still need to work on first.  And those will produce more scraps.  

I did not finish off both bins of scraps. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one bin was actually yardage.  It was fabric that I had purchased and stuffed in a box to keep it clean.  So that was a relief.  I still have some larger pieces of fabric to trim down. But these scraps were a wrinkled mess. I needed to press all of them and some of them were too big to press on the pressing side of my 12" cut and press mat. I just didn't have the room to get out the ironing board at the moment. They will also be easier to cut on a larger cutting mat.  So I need to get my dining room table cleared to do these.  I expect that I will get some longish 2-1/2" strips and maybe even some 5" strips.  I'll just have to see how big each piece is before cutting. So that will have to wait until I get back on track with my studio organization. One thing is for sure, my scrap file is not big enough anymore.

This whole thing got me thinking about what is a scrap? What size is left over yardage and what size is scrap. I asked others what they considered to be scrap. Some say that it is anything left over after a project, no matter what size it is.  Another person told me that anything less than a yard is scrap. Still another felt that anything less than a 1/2 yard was scrap.  I suppose the type of quilting you do has something to do with what you consider scrap.

My current working definition of a scrap is anything that is smaller than a fat quarter.  So the piece must be at least 18" wide and 20" long to not be considered a scrap. If it is 10" inches wide and 36" long it is still a scrap and should be cut down even though it has the same area as a fat quarter. This is because to me dimensions mean more than square inches when it comes to cutting for piecing.  Plus since I got the long arm, I am trimming down the backing and that leaves long narrow strips of fabric that really isn't yardage.

What is your definition of a scrap?  Do you save scraps? Do you have a mountain of scraps that need to be managed? If so, Check out Karen's video.

Hopefully this next week I will focus more on studio organization and not have quite so many squirrels.