No Scrap Withdrawal This Year

This was the scene early yesterday morning when I started pulling fabric for my Mini Swoon.  Looks a little chaotic, right?  Love the photo-bomb of Naala's butt!  The yarn you can see is one of Bella's many toys.  Just as in Kingsville, she and I share my sewing space. 

I thought that people who know that we spend a good chunk of the winter here in Florida would probably be curious as to how I had a fair number of fabric pieces from which to choose for the fabric pull for Swoon I wrote about yesterday.

How do I decide what to take and what to leave behind?  It's a serious dilemma I face, and mostly avoid, until the last minute, much to my husband's, MacGyver, (his alias on the blog, as he is a very private man), chagrin.

I thought I'd tell you what I did this year, after last year when I couldn't get started on a Scrap-a-Palooza quilt because I didn't have my scraps of yellow with me.  I was nearing serious withdrawal symptoms, shakes and stomachaches, the lot, ha.

Presenting...my scrap stash!

This is almost all of it, barring my sets of Sterilite 3-drawer organizers that have the roll-ups scrap stash.  An example of the roll-ups is the blacks and greys and pinks you see on the left.  Some more are visible in the Ziploc bag, oranges and lime green and some Christmas.  They are all in that bag because they are destined to become the final few cows I need to paper-piece for my aunt's quilt.  The blacks and greys will be a bull of Maartje's design.

What is the method here?  Is there one?!  Let me show you.

Roll-ups
These are bits and pieces and sometimes fabric bought just because it's a good colour or pattern or I just flippin' like it. (Notice I have not written a stash manifesto.  Yet.  Still contemplating that one.)  The size of the roll-ups is usually 1/4 yard-ish to 1/3 yard-ish.  The pinks and one brown and some royal blues are together because they are going to become a quilt.

Smaller than 1/4 yard chunks
These go in the ziploc bags, organized by colour family.  I brought them all this year, and they all fit in the one tub in which they are perched here. Well, not quite, the whites, ivories and low volume fabrics are rather plentiful, so they have a little bit bigger bag, and were stuffed in my toolbox.

Strips
Above the ziploc scraps is a green basket of strips.  I've started separating strips from the ziploc bags because I want to make another string quilt.  I brought them all.

2.5" squares collection
These are in a drawer organizer.  I've dipped into it already for both cushion covers I made in January.

Two turquoise baskets
They contain my blue and the green smaller scraps, too many for a ziploc.  They were loose in the plastic tub, but it was too disorganized and jumbled, so I bought the two baskets at Big Lots for $1.30 and now they have their own place. :-) And yep, there is a stack of squares in with the greens in a variety of sizes and colours that I also brought because, well, they just fit.

It's all organized neatly in the closet and one of the drawers in a dresser, so I can put my hands on and in it readily!  No scrap withdrawal pains this winter. ;-)

Linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.