Taming of the Strash!

So many have asked HOW I start to deal with two trash bags full of random scraps in different sizes of hunks and chunks and strips and pieces ---that I thought I’d show you what I’ve done so far.

((The original post, A Gift of Strash, is found HERE.))

I was SUPPOSED to be packing for my flight to Illinois tomorrow, but you know? I couldn’t make myself just put the strash back into the black bags for fear that some well meaning family member would just dump it come trash day! Heaven forbid!

So…I ignored my to-do list and sat on the floor and sorted. I sorted anything that was poly-blend or stuff that wasn’t good for my quilt making OUT.

And then I sorted into piles…some by color family, and some by genre, and some --- just solids.

Wanna see how much better it looks?

There was more BLUE than anything. I just put any blue that I wanted to save into the blue pile. At this point I’m not worried about whether it will become strips, or be folded and tucked into the FQ drawers – It’s just…BLUE.

This is my red pile. See that red with the swirly dots? There is quite a bit of that and I love that print, so it will probably be folded and tucked away in my FQ drawers….there are several big hunks of this.

There was a very small pile of purple ---

But quite a lot of pink! Some of these pinks may be light enough to use as “neutral lights” but for now, they are pink so they go in this pile.

Yellows and golds and browns….

Lovely greens --- do you recognize any of these?

Just a few printed blacks, and a handful of oranges ---

HUGE stack of florals and fruits! Just when I think I cleared them all out in Florabunda ----Hello, Again! I tend to keep busy florals together because they usually don’t tend to read as one color ---do you think there will be more floral quilts in my future? What can we do to use these up?

A fun pile of novelties to add to my novelties box --- these are great for I-spy type kid quilts. I used several of these in my Story-Time Stars quilt ---now I’ll have more variety for the next baby quilt I need to do. ((I’m wondering who is going to announce that they are expecting at the Family Reunion on 4th of July – that’s usually where this kind of news is let loose!))

HUGE stack of woven plaids and stripes – These are awesome! Must find something to do with these ----There were a couple of Christmas pieces too – those are in the top right of the photo. In with the Christmas fabrics they will go.

A small handful of 30’s ---these will go right into my 30’s bin. I do keep 30’s fabrics together rather than separate by color with these.

Sweet neutrals & lights – I can ALWAYS use these – they are one thing that is always leaving my stash – and I love lots of variety.

Solid muslins in several different shades. These are always a welcome addition too –I love how they look when mixed with plaids and stripes and old fashioned looking fabrics – timeless!

There was quite a lot of solid black in all different sizes of pieces too ---I last cleared out my “odd black” stash when I did Rectangle Wrangle, and now I’ll have some more solid blacks to work through! There were some other solids in a variety of colors as well….makes me want to do some Amish kind of piecing ---can I just add more time to my calendar, please? I want to sew!

Where do I go from here with these piles? It will have to wait. I’ll go through and see what can be stripped up into uniform sizes and added to my strip drawers. What can be folded and filed away with FQs –and what will just wind up in the string bins. All I know is I am happy to adopt these pieces and will have a load of fun using them!

That's probably all you'll hear from me this evening -- I've gotta get a suitcase packed and finish loading up the quilts into the big duffels ---heading to the airport at 7:30am!

Have a great evening, everyone!