What do you do with your scraps?

I was reading on Karen's blog, about Quilters Connection, a Canadian Quilt magazine, who are running a contest. Their Spring 2010 issue will be a green issue and they want to know what you do to Re-use, Re-duce and Re-cycle when you quilt.

This got me thinking about what I do with my bits and scraps of left over fabric. I left comments on the Quilters Connection blog about some of the things that I do and I'll share with you too.

1. When I finish making a quilt, unless there's more than a yard left over, I now cut up the left over fabric into small projects. I have 3 Ziploc bags handy. I save 6" x 4" pieces of fabric for making luggage tags. I save 4.5" squares for criss cross Coasters, and I save 5" pieces of fabric for making wonder wallets by Lazy Girl Designs.

2. Binding - a few years back, I ran out of binding for a quilt. I learned a very good lesson, and ever since then, I always err on the high side and usually make too much binding now. Since I always use 2.25" wide binding, I save my leftover binding. When I make a small scrappy project, I put together leftover binging lengths and use it that way.

3. Binding (can you tell I love binding) When I have a fat quarter piece of fabric that is now outdated, or I just don't like it any more, I make standard bias binding out of it. I measure it, fold it up and secure it with a piece of selvage. I put a paper label on it with the length of binding so I can quickly know how much is there to use. I use it to bind small projects.

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Well, there's my 3 tips for the Quilters Connection blog. If you are Canadian, and and have some green tips, why not go over to their blog and leave your ideas. All tips will be published.