Cutting with Scraps in Mind

I am finally getting back to/starting to work on this quilt. I used my quilting time each day this week, setting the oven timer for 30 minutes, cutting the black fabrics I set aside for this quilt.

The first day I ironed all my black fabrics.

 It made cutting fabrics the rest of the week a lot less fustrating!

This is the designated drawer for the quilt's fabrics. You can see some of my piles already cut. I cut a lot of the beige/tan fabrics last year.

Each pile of cuttings is marked with what size and shape it is {this is 8 3/8 inch squares} and underneath how many I have cut {12}.

The bottom right shows how many I need total under the slash {22 pieces}

As I cut more I scratch through the last total and write the new total. 

Most of my fabrics I cut before I thought to take photos and share with you how I got the most out of each piece! 
This is one of the larger pieces I worked with. I think it was around a half yard of fabric, which I kept folded for most of the cutting below.

If you look at this photo closely, you will see the left edge of my fabric goes beyond the 0 measurement on the cutting mat. The edge is a little "fuzzy" so I make my first cut then. . .

turn my fabric to align my new cut edge with the 0 mark. Then I can measure over at my cutting line and trim off the fuzzies.

This isn't a selvage edge.

 Selvages are almost sacred around here!!

 I love to cut with scraps in mind. 

I make a generous selvage cut - here it's 1.5 inches. Sometimes if the pattern is small enough I even cut a 2 inch selvage to use.

Once I cut 2 strips of fabric for the biggest blocks, I had to make a decision. I could have cut 2 strips of 3 3/8 inches, but then I wouldn't have had enough fabric left to make blocks in the smaller size. I'm using lots of different blacks in this project and want to have a mix of fabrics in each block area. I decided to make one strip of each required size, then make a 1 inch selvage {which is big enough when it's a no-word selvage} and that left me with a 2 inch strip. 

My 3 inch strips turned into bricks 3 inches by 5.5 inches. I found that leaving the strip folded over wasted fabric and actually gave me incorrect cuts {I was off by 1/8}. Unfolding my strip gave me 3 useable bricks and a little bit left to make a 3 inch square.

My timer went off as I made the last cut! 

Perfect timing.

I counted up the pieces I cut today, updated my notes and put everything away for next time.

The "best" part of this session? I found out I need to buy some more black fabric!!

Do you cut with scraps in mind? 

With Joy,

Sarah Vee