I May Have a Scrap Problem... But I Also Have Minions!

Hi, all!

I feel so virtuous!  I played with scraps today - or I guess I should say I took my lovely grandchildren, turned them into minions...

...and we sorted out two giant tubs of scraps!!!  

After about an hour of gleefully tossing scraps into (sometimes the wrong) color piles and Lilli testing to see how a certain color looked on her brother or sister (she's a budding fashionista), we ended up with this...

Lots of piles sorted by color that I need to press and fold, then add to the already-sorted color tubs!  The big pile on the left is pieces that are more than one fabric (usually trimmed from pieced backs) that I need to take apart before putting them in a tub.  I'll put them in a basket by my normal evening seat so I can work on them when I'm not doing anything else in the evening!

I also finished the third block (second step) in the Long Time Gone quilt - this one is called Square in Square Stars.  Still need to pull and cut the pieces for the next step - that's on my list for the week!  If you've been working on this same quilt, I'd love to see what you're doing - feel free to link up below and show off!!

And now, how about some scrappy inspiration?  I saw some beautiful things on Instagram this week...

I love this unique setting for a string quilt, and wish I had caught the name of the maker in my screen shot.  If you know who made it, please speak up!!

This is another quilt that would be a great scrap buster, and there's a link for a free pattern in the pic above.  You'll have to type it in, unfortunately, but it's there!

And here's another great string quilt - I love a good spiderweb quilt, don't you?

One of the ladies in my church's quilt ministry group is working on this version of Scrappy Stars - I absolutely love the dark pink stars against the light pink charm square prints!!

And Julie over at Pink Doxies made this great 9-patch quilt, inspired by a vintage quilt.  I really like the setting with the 4-patch blocks as cornerstones.  Can't you see the scraps flying out the door as you make this one?

And my greatest scrap busting tip of the week?

I hope you are as inspired by it as I am.....

I took one look at this and thought - "Wouldn't that be amazing with a cutting mat instead of a cutting board, and you could just scrape all your little trimmings and tiny scraps into the trash can below?"

Funny how sometimes things just hit you the right way!  I may try to work out a way to do this somewhere on my worktable - ideas are rolling around in my head, and it's a good week to try it because I can be both chief and indian - my husband and I usually both try to be chief on projects like this, and that doesn't work out very well.....

So I'm also feeling virtuous because I have a substantive scrap post!  Have you been working on your scraps too?  It's a great time of year to make scrappy quilts - make one for the Hands2Help Challenge here on my blog, and you could end up with one of the great giveaway items at the end!  You can read more about it here if you are interested....

I've put a linky party at the end of this post so you can show off how virtuous you're being, too - give us some more inspiration to keep working off those scraps!!

Hugs!

Sarah