Scrap Happy Summer Meet Melissa

I first met Melissa at a sew in for the SLC Modern quilt guild.   She was so friendly and down to earth we hit it right off.  She was working on her Dresden plate challenge and it was inspiring to see her creative mind work. She is so good at juggling her quilting and family.  I really admire her for that.  I thought it was awesome when we taught at the Panguitch Quilt Walk that she brought her family along.  When she wasn’t teaching she went hiking with them in Bryce Canyon.  Now that is one fab mom.  

Melissa has a great mind for design.  She has some really great tutorials on her sight.  Many that are scrap friendly.  Also check out her patterns found on her sidebar.  The quilt below is one of her free tutes and is on my bucket list.

Now here is what Melissa has to say about scraps…   

Me- What do you consider a scrap?  What’s to big/small?

Melissa- Fat Eighth’s and up stack neatly on my shelf.  Once I start cutting into those Fat Eighth’s and Quarters, the remnants go into the scrap basket.   Except for the “trimmings”.  I consider a trim anything smaller than about 2″ square .  I have a little trim box right next to my garbage can where those tiny little pieces go.  Once it is full, the trim box is given to a lady in the neighborhood who collects it to make dog beds for the local shelter.  Yippee Skippee for no waste 🙂

Me-  Do you prefer big projects or little ones when using your scraps?  Or do you use a combo?

Melissa- I love to use my scraps in little projects.  I use them for swaps, bee blocks, and wall hangings.  I keep thinking I want to use my scraps for a large project, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  But there are quite a few planned . . . for someday 🙂

Me  How do you keep your scraps form taking over your sewing area?  

Melissa- As I mentioned, once the fabric is cut it goes into the scrap basket.  This is a basket that sits on top of my Scrap bins 🙂  When the basket starts to get full, I take a half hour and sort all the scraps by color.  There is a drawer for each color in the bin.  Super organized and super easy 🙂

Me- Any tips you would offer others when using scraps?

Melissa- I would suggest signing up for a bee that uses scraps.  I love, love, love the quilts that I have made put together with all of my friends scraps.  And I am using my scraps every month to make their blocks, double bonus 🙂   And all in all, scraps are always fun when shared with friends!