Quilt Scraps Aren’t the Same Without You
A continued puzzlement to our galactic friends is the cutting up and reassembly of fabric scraps that we call quilting. “Why do you cut them apart if they are already a functional piece of fabric?” they ask inquiringly. My mom would explain the fun of joining different fabrics together to make beautiful patterns. Still skeptical about this expenditure of time and effort, the galactics would accept this answer as they saw the joy it brought her.
What they didn’t know is that making a quilt results in even more scraps of fabric. Odds and ends accumulate, and if you’re not careful, they’ll devour your sewing space. First you amass a few extra strips from a quilt. Next they’re joined by an odd shaped piece of fabric that doesn’t quite fold neatly. Before you know it, some half-square triangles that lack obvious cohesion have found their way into an ever growing pile.
Many quilters choose to make order out of chaos, my mom included. In the drawers of the last cabinet that used to sit in my great-grandfather’s shoe store nest various predetermined cuts of fabric. 2 inch, 2.5 inch, 3.5 inch, and 5 inch strips occupy one set of drawers while their square counterparts sit adjacent. It makes for a pleasing array that lends itself to loads of quilt patterns.
