The difference between a messy scrap pile and a beautiful scrap quilt is a system. Staying on top of your fabric scraps can be a constant battle. Your overflowing bins can be overwhelming. What do you do with all those tiny pieces that are too precious to throw out? How do you avoid the I know I have that somewhere…? Today I’m talking about my favorite scrap busting quilting tools. These tools make scrap quilting easier, faster, and more fun!
Tools for Sorting
Knowing what you have and where it is, is the first step. To do this you must decide what’s worth saving to you. How small a scrap is worth saving? I will keep pieces as small as 1 1/2″. But I’ll admit there are times when overwhelm sets in that I give scraps away and tiny bits become filling for dog beds, stuffed toys and such. So set your own standards and don’t feel guilty about letting some things go.
Once you know what you want to keep use clear bins to sort those precious bits. I like to use clear shoe box size bins for my chunky scraps. Storing a separate color in each bin. I keep my crumbs in a large basket. This keeps them contained while making them easy to look through without making a huge mess. While my strips go in baskets according to size.
Tools for cutting & designing
So after your scraps are sorted and ready to play with the real fun begins. My favorite tool and probably the easiest way turn scraps into useable pieces is the AccuQuilt cutting system. I love that I can load it up with six layers of scrap fabric and end up with useable square, rectangles, half square triangles and more in minutes. Discover my favorite dies here.
Another favorite tool is the Essential Triangle ruler. This awesome ruler enables a quilter to cut squares, half squares and quarter squares all from a single strip. Like I did in this quilt.
Besides these useful cutting tools I find a design wall to be very helpful in turning my leftover fabric into beautiful quilts. My sons turned one of the walls in my studio into one. But you could simply tack up a flannel backed table cloth. This will allow you to arrange your blocks and get a feel for how your quilt will look before you sew it all together. 
Would you like more help turning your scraps into quilts? Be sure to join me for a FREE scrap busting workshop. Save your spot here.
