Thursday, February 02, 2006

I'm going to share a little secret with you all as I prepare to baste the swamp cabin wallhanging. I make alot of quilts..not by Bonnie's standard, but still A LOT, and in alot of sizes.
Betsy and I jointly bought a roll of the W&N type cotton batt, with a half price coupon for one item. We are on our 3rd roll now, but I'm off track. The batting is 90+" wide. Often that leaves me with about a 30" wide piece the width of the quilt I basted. What to do with those pieces isn't a problem..but they pile up faster than I make wall hangings or table runners or bags, etc.

And when you want to use a "scrap" for a project like this one today, you unfold all the pieces and try the new thing against it to see if it's big enough. So what I did in late Dec. was sit down and MEASURE ALL those scraps. Then I pinned a small piece of paper to each one, and recorded it in a notebook. Today having found a stash piece for backing that is about the right size, I'll just look in my notebook and see what I've got that will work in that pile of scrap batting. If I use it all, I'll draw a line through the iisting, if not, I'll remeasure it and put the leftover back in the rubbermaid.
If I do this with the cut-a-way part as it forms, I'm already ahead of the game..thought you might like to know. A bit anal of course, but sure does save time and grief.

6 comments:

Laurie Ann said...

I usually piece batting together using a zigzag stitch to make pieces big enough for my baby blankets. I also use W&N and I heard that with the webbing that it is needled into that piecing it together like I do was a viable option. And then with the quilting it should stay put. I hope I am not making a mistake!

Patti said...

I do something similar and it helps a lot. I'm not so organized I have a notebook - that's a good idea! But I measure the batting scraps, then roll them up like a little sleeping bag, tie a fabric strip around them, and mark the size on the end of the fabric strip with a sharpie. Then I store them on a shelf so I can read all the fabric strips. I also label it as to the type of batting, and often pieces several pieces together to make them big enough for a quilt. As long as you quilt them heavily they will do just fine.

Maggie Ann said...

I knew you were a wise woman...I can learn so much from you dear Finn.

Laurie said...

Finn,
I have heard of people doing this...now i KNOW someone who did it! LOL Glad it worked for you!
Hugs
Laurie

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh what a great idea. I have a pile too and sit and pull them all out like you did!

Holly said...

Not anal - organized! I love it.