Waste not, Want not

Those of you who know me know that I am what I like to call “frugal.” I do not like to waste anything. I am the same way with quilting. custodia libretto iphone 6 I finished quilting my Swedish Mystery, so now it is time to trim off the excess and get the binding on. Can you see how much trimming there is to be done? Virtually none! I think I drive my friend, Dee, nuts, but she is so kind, she just smiles and shakes her head. I love it when things turn out exact: just the right amount of backing, just the right amount of batting, just the right number of bobbins wound, just the right amount of binding. iphon se custodia But when there is an overage, I can still use the scraps.   What you see on the right is a little strip of cheddar that I had to add to make the backing larger than the quilt top so the clamps could have a place to attach. Not to worry, though, that is a good, usable strip of fabric. custodia batteria iphone 5s The batting needed to be stretched out a little to fit correctly. custodia antipolvere iphone 6 I was a little too close on figuring that; so close that I was about 1 1/2″ short for the length, so I had to piece it.     In the end, look what was left over. I got a 6″ wide strip of batting, (that was left over from what I had to piece on to make the correct length) six 2 1/2″ x width of the fabric blue strips, four various length 2″ strips and three strips that were 1 1/2″ x width of the fabric. You can see what I had left to throw away, virtually NOTHING! The batting will be used to make pot holders or luggage tags or quilt sandwiches for practice. The strips will go into my pre-cut strip bin and be ready to go for the next scrappy project.

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4 Responses to Waste not, Want not

  1. Dee says:

    Frugal is as frugal does 🙂

  2. Pkay says:

    I also discovered that you need to process those leftovers into strips immediately or they become overwhelming clutter that you just have to throw away!

  3. Gayle says:

    I just got a quilt back from the quilter and had to trim about 6″ off of the backing fabric – grrr…. but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry! Sounds like you’ve got things down to a science!

    • pkay says:

      I know 6″ seems like a lot to trim off, but that is what long arm quilters require. Now you have yardage to cut into smaller strips. Aren’t you lucky??!

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