Change of Perspective

I used to be so sad when I used the last of a fabric, and throwing out scraps? Never! Well, I also used to think a fat quarter was too small to bother buying, and after seeing one fat quarter going into a dozen different quilts, I've changed my mind.  

This week I've been dealing with flannel, that I made a big pile of months ago, and swore I'd get to right away. I've been moving that pile around for months, but not anymore! 

I have mixed feelings about working with flannel. I love the way it feels as a quilt backing. I prefer it when making burp rags. I have no problems making garments from flannel. Rag quilts? Flannel is great! Piecing with flannel? I've made several flannel quilts, and it's fine, but the smaller the pieces the less I like piecing with it. The looser weave of flannel makes it harder to accurately piece with in my world. I always prewash flannel, and I starch it before I cut it, but I still have issues. When I decided to try simplifying my scraps, I took all those things especially into account when it came to flannel scraps. I decided to only save 4.5" squares of flannel, no other sizes of scrap flannel. Anything I couldn't get a 4.5" square out of was getting tossed, but could I do it? Could I stick to that? I routinely use 1.5" cut squares of quilting fabric, but I know I wouldn't enjoy working with that size of flannel scrap. I love making string quilts, but I have no desire to make a flannel string quilt. I quilt because I love it, and sometimes I do steps I enjoy less because the end result is worth it. But, is saving every scrap that you don't even want to work with worth it?

That pile I dug out months ago? It was all the flannel pieces I had that were too small to back a baby quilt with. If the piece wasn't big enough to back a baby quilt, the piece is also too small for garments, so it was destined to be cut. 

I make a LOT of burp rags! It seems I always know someone having a baby, and although I don't make everyone I know a baby quilt, a few homemade burp rags is a nice start to a baby gift. Step one was to cut all the burp rags I could with my burp rag die.

This is what I ended up with. I make burp rags with multiple layers of flannel, so it won't make as many as you might think. 

I cut whatever was too small to cut into a burp rag into 4.5" squares. 

There are a lot of squares here, and I'm not quite finished, but I'm close!

This small stack should become squares tomorrow. Then that pile I made months ago is all gone! 

Here is the kitchen trash bag filled with all the scraps that I couldn't get a 4.5" square from. At one time I would have felt terribly guilty for "wasting" all that fabric. But you know what I was really wasting? I was wasting a trashbag sized space in my house filled with stuff I'd never use. You know what I'm keeping? The good stuff I'll actually use. 

How long was I wasting the space in my house?

Well, a bunch of my flannel scraps were in this Toys R US bag, and our local Toys R Us closed in 2018, but I hadn't shopped there for at least a couple years before that. So at least four years of wasting the space in my house, on something I wouldn't have used no matter how long I stored it. I'm keeping what I will use now, and sure, something could have been made from what I'm tossing, but I wouldn't have made it, and I'm OK with that now. 

Speaking of making burp rags, I made a pile of burp rags to go with the giraffe quilt I finished!

I hope the parents like it as much as I do!

I even think the backing came out cute!

The next quilt to be assembled is the quilt for my BIL from my late sister's clothes.

It's sideways on the design wall, the blocks will run vertically. I used pants for the outside of each block, and squares from her shirts in the middle. I hope he'll like it. I'll have to make a quilt like this from regular quilting cottons, I enjoyed making the blocks.