~ Working with Tiny Fabric Scraps ~

 Scraps, we all have them.  I know many quilters would find my tiny scraps to be trash or stuffing for a dog pillow.  So why do I keep them?   That's a simple answer.....REGRET.  In the past these little bitty scraps would have been tossed out.  A couple of years would pass and I would regret letting them go when I needed smaller pieces of fabric for a project.

My Scrap Happy Baskets quilt is example of the quilts I made using various sizes of scraps.  The circles in the quilt are one inch.  The tutorial for this block can be found here.

Most of the tiny pieces are only good for very tiny applique but there are a few that could still be stitched into a block. In this quilt the squares finish at 1/2" so they started as 1" squares.

 So when I see these small scraps I see potential.  Yes it requires a little bit more patience to work with smaller pieces.  But if you start out with a small project it doesn't seem so overwhelming.  

Finishing a mini quilt with tiny pieces is very rewarding and they look so darn cute hanging in the studio!

The new fusible webbing's for applique give us the freedom to go super duper tiny without needing to turn the edges of the fabric and reducing the time spent making them.  My favorite fusible is Heat and Bond lite.  Why?  Well, it works and it's cheap.  I've used many other more expensive brands that can not hold up to the washing machine and dryer.  This one does what it says.

I bet your wondering at this point why I'm showing pictures that have absolutely nothing to do with the captions...LOL!  Well building up to something and thought you might want to see a close up of the fabrics.

So how low will I go with applique?  My rule of thumb for size is "If I can put a stitch in it".  Well that rule might change with this project.  The pieces are so tiny that the stitches might take away from the fabric or shape of the applique.

They are so small I've pulled out the tweezers.  The silver tweezers on the top were bought years ago at Harbor Freight by Mr. Podunk for making fly fishing lures.  They can be found at Joann's, craft shops and most hardware stores.  The colorful tweezers are Tula Pink's.   This would be a great time to test them out to see if I preferred one over the other.  The result is I could find no real difference in performance or ease of use.  The Tula tweezers came with a little rubber tip to cover the super pointy tips.  The silver tweezers are kinda blunt so there is no reason for a rubber tip.  Both styles can be purchased here if your looking for a pair of tweezers.  The best price would be the silver ones made by Dritz and a 60% coupon at Joann fabrics. 

The tweezers have been a real time saver.  I couldn't imagine making this project without them.  Picking up the fusible shapes and the finished applique piece would have been a real trick without them.

All of the applique is cut and ready to be put into place.  Now I have a small bit of scraps that will finally become trash.

Here's the before and after of my fabric pull.  Not much of a difference.  Can't wait to show you see the finished project....Cute as can be, lots of color!

But your just going to have to wait a few more days.  This project is for a the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop.  My day to share is this Thursday, Feburay 21.

Below is a list of the bloggers participating in the Hop today.   Hope you take the time to check out at least a few of these talented bloggers.  Some of the bloggers are having GIVEAWAYS, you don't miss out on freebies, do you?  

Monday Feb 18^th

Turid at densyendehimmel

Pamela at Pamelaquilts

Joan at Moosestashquilting

Anne at seems like a plan

Susan at Desertsky Quilting

Selina at Selinaquilts

Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

#scrapapplique #quilttweezers

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