Theresa, you must live close to me. I’m in North Dakota; we had more snow last week.

I don’t have a large stash, at all. I keep my scraps in their original state until I have a purpose for them. Then I cut them to the size and shape I need.

I was looking in one of two small (10x14x8) bins picking out pieces to cut for the August lotto blocks. I think have enough variety to cut each corner square/triangle from a seperate fabric!

I cut squares if the strip is less than 1/2” longer than wide. (So a 2-1/2” strip that is less than 3” long would get trimmed to a square.). Once I start using them for a project I cut them to the lengths I need.

Donna

I thought I answered Caroline but must have "forgotten " to submit.

Caroline I am in Windsor Ontario, across the river from Detroit. I have been

"collecting" fabric since 1982 , so there is a lot. Wow, that is 36 years! And I think some of it may be that old.

Theresa

Hi, Theresa. I just looked at my stash of 2.5" strips, and it appears that I do not cut them into squares unless they are shorter than 5 inches. I figure you can always cut them into squares later if you need squares.

I just took my yardstick to our deck, opened the door and measured the snowfall. Since Friday evening, we have had 16" of snow. And it's still snowing! We have 20" of ice on our lake yet, say the ice fisherman who bore through it to fish. Average high temp for April 15 in Minneapolis is 58 degrees (14 degrees C). It's 29 degrees now. To say this will be a late spring is quite an understatement. I'm trying to stay optimistic though - I am getting my kitchen cabinets washed and polished.

Yes, this certainly is a strange weather year. We have almost as much water in the back yard as we did last Aug. when we had the flooded basement. We keep running down to check. We had a new sump pump installed as well as a back flow valve, so in theory we should be safe...in theory. And cold. In this morning's downpour, there was ice. I am ready for some warm and the 0 temps to leave.

Theresa

Agreed! I'm in S. Illinois and even though we have not had much snow, the rain and cold have made unlike spring at all. My vegetable gardens is usually being planted now, but its been so wet and unpleasant, I haven't been able to till the soil. My azaleas are behind in blooming, and the dogwoods haven't peeped out yet either.

Minutes ago I was going through all the fabric snippets I have piled in my scrap basket and I was just thinking, "what the heck am I going to do with all these, LOL" I'm not much of a scrappy quilter, so I'm not sure where they will end up.

Last year I organized all my scraps only by color family. I don't do any cutting down until I am working on a project and then I make the decision. But I do have a lot of variously sized strips due to leftover bindings, trimmings from end of quilts, etc. I could probably make ten quilts from it all if I wanted to, especially string quilts.

We are also having very unusual weather for Florida, this is the middle of April and still having some 60's and even 50's in the early mornings. Weird!

Rita, did you have big storms yesterday? We were under a tornado watch all afternoon. The wind was blowing like crazy and we had rain bands; it was almost like a tropical storm.

Donna

We probably were, I was just checking in on the radar every once in awhile so I don't know if we were in the red zone but man the wind was really blowing and today it's windy and cool, too.

We had snow all day today in northwest Indiana. I put Christmas music on for fun! I, too, sort by color and then cut as needed for my scrappy quilts. Larger pieces I tend to keep separate, but once the bins have more room, I'll probably add them into the correct bin, too.

Good discussion... I tend not to discard any fabric and will only cut it once I know what I need. However, I recently emptied my sewing space in anticipation of installing a laminate floor....it seems this takes forever with a certain home improvement store. In the process of cleaning up, I did dispose of pieces I would never use and have slightly tamed the stash.

I have kept all lengths of 12" or more, with widths 5" or less, in preparation for a future string quilt. I have started to sew some strings together...I'm gonna have a lot of strings!

Lastly, ,will someone please tell the weather gods that is's mid April! Cold and freezing rain go, go away!