The Empty Box

I wanted to completely empty my 2.5 inch width scrap box before year end. Mission accomplished!  I've had this box full of actual scraps for years even though every year I picked two or three Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects to make that used 2.5 inch scraps. 

I made some nine patches with any pieces long enough to cut 5  2.5 inch squares.  I ended up with 149 nine patches and if I use 120 of them to make a quilt I will have 29 blocks left for my Parts Department.  Moving forward whenever I have 2.5 inch scraps left over instead of throwing them into a box I am going to make nine patches, if possible, for the Parts Department. 

For a couple of years I've been sewing anything less than a square into strips. Since I emptied my 3.5, 4.5 and now my 2.5 inch scrap bins and boxes I have quite a few strips - probably enough for a couple of Chinese Coins quilts. Moving forward whenever I have pieces less than a square of any size left over I will sew them into strips with fabrics of all colors instead of keeping the colors separate. 

I have 1230 2.5 x 3.5 rectangles that have resulted from cleaning out the 3.5 and 2.5 inch scrap bins. I am going to make a little larger of a quilt at Blue Elephant Stitches that will use approximately 800 rectangles.  That will leave me with about half of the rectangles needed for a second quilt so moving forward when I have scraps left over from a project that I can cut into a 2.5 x 3.5 rectangle I will keep cutting rectangles until I have enough for a second quilt. 

I cut 852  2.5 inch squares toward my goal of 1008 for a Jack and Jill quilt.  After I meet that goal I will continue to cut squares from left over scraps to be used in who knows what in the future. 

 The empty box. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday