I like to call my smallest fabric scraps, bits or crumbs. These precious little pieces are some of my favorite toys. I figure I paid as much for them as I did for the yardage in my stash. Plus they have the added value of the memories they hold from the previous projects I made with them.
While I try to gather my crumbs as I go, and add them to my bits bin. You can learn more about my scrap sorting method here. But I must admit, I’m not perfect at this. So when I’m running low on crumbs I go through my strips and chunks and pull out those little pieces. So what do I consider a crumb? If a strip is less than 10″ I throw it in the crumbs bin. If a chunk is less than 5″ it joins my crumbs. This video shows how I do that. 
I like to use these smallest fabric scraps in a number of ways, including applique and improv piecing. I find they make great bird beaks, tree trunks and star points. 
The main way I like to use crumbs is to make crumb fabric. I wrote a whole book on this method. I use crumb fabric for anything you would use regular fabric for. This includes piecing and applique.
I also find it a great way to add interest to a background.
Crumb fabric is traditionally made with a mix of colors. But I have found that just like when I use a single color or family of colors to make a background that crumb fabric looks great done in a single color like I did for the star in Color My World. If you don’t have enough of one color to do this. Try branching out to that color’s neighbors on the color wheel.
I hope this gives you ideas on how to play with your smallest fabric scraps.
