I did a better in May than in April - for sure, but not as well as I could have.

Here are my totals:

2.5" - 4.5 lbs.

2" -  4.84 lbs.

1.5" - 1.1 lbs.

strings/crumbs - 1.9 lbs.

For those of you who don't know what I'm doing - I'm trying to conquer all my misc. scraps - I used to have bags and bags of them.

I know, they are a constant struggle to keep up, but I had gotten quite behind - so I made 2017 my year to get caught up trimming them down into 1.5", 2" or 2.5" strips - plus a misc. category called strings/crumbs where I put pieces too big to throw away into the "burn/kindling" category but too frustrating in shape to deal with in one of the other categories.

I spent a good bit of February and March focusing on them, but have since tried to devote 15 min./day on them - until I get caught up. I often fall off the bandwagon, so to speak, but I keep picking myself back up, brushing myself off and getting back on and try again to cut. 

This makes my chart of the year 2017 look like this. While I didn't work the entire month of May on strips, I did actually pick up again about 10 days ago. I am making good progress on all the cut offs from the charity quilts I finished in April and earlier in May.

Since we all like pictures - here are the close ups of the baskets of strips:

I have since taken these and added them to my bags of 1.5", 2" and 2.5" strips which I'm trying to use up!

These are almost all a result of the cut offs from the the quilting I did in April/May - but some are leftovers from some piecing I've done recently.

I hope this report encourages you to deal with your scraps - either use them, sort them and put them where you can find them or get rid of them - don't let them weigh you down and feel burdened!  No piece of fabric is worth that - not even bags and bags of them!

I prefer to try to use mine - as I don't have a constant supply of free materials. Plus, it is a challenge to me to make something nice from them. While I don't call them "free" - since I paid for them, I realize that since I've already made one project using these, this is sort of like "bonus" materials - materials that many quilters throw away. 

Many times the problem isn't that we don't have scraps, but that they are such a mess that we don't want to deal with them and instead pull out the nicely folded fabric off the shelves! This is actually easier, I know.  However, if you want to create something beautiful with your scraps, and don't want to spend "forever" on it - check out the free patterns section of this website! There are plenty for you to choose from and surely at least one appeals to you!

And that's all for my "cutting up scraps into strips" report for May!

And just in case you need something to add to your stash, be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the "materials" section! Here's a sample of the fat quarter bundles we have.  People get all excited when Joann's has them for $1/each - but she has them all the time for that or just a little more! Be sure to look!