It's raining scraps!

We all have scraps right? Are you plagued with them or do you embrace them enthusiastically as you plan out your next scrappy quilt. I love scraps. They look so pretty in their boxes and it's amazing how much money you save by using up the scraps. If I go to my local quilt shop here in London most of the good quality quilting cottons cost between £14 and £22 a metre (20 to 31 US dollars) so using up the scraps saves me a lot of money.

Last year I set out to get my scraps organised by cutting into useful sizes and storing them by colour and size.

The only problem with scraps is that the more you sew the more scraps you produce, so on a regular basis I try and revisit my scrap basket so I can keep the scraps under control. On Thursday evening I got out my cutter and the scrap box and spent a little time cutting 1 1/2 inch squares. I didn't get very far as it is quite a time consuming job but I did end up with a small pile of squares that I can use on my nine patch baby quilt.

I still need to cut a lot more squares in order to finish the baby quilt. Sarah from Confessions of a fabric addict has a new linky party so we can share how we organise our scraps and then how we use them. My goal with my scraps for March is to cut enough 1 1/2 inch scraps to complete the 9 patch baby quilt. Simple! I also want to press all the scraps in my box and start the cutting process . I tend to cut scraps into 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 and 3 inch squares. I've found these are the sizes I use most frequently.

Now I need to cut the pieces for my 'Once I caught a fishy' baby quilt. This is my 'Let's book it' project for March.

I found this lovely fish fabric. The fish have such happy faces.

I also have a pale blue for the fish to be appliqued onto. I have already cut the template for the fish from a thin plastic sheet.

Today the weather was fabulous here in London. Yesterday morning was cold and foggy. The fog in town wasn't particularly bad, but you can see the frost on the car windscreen,

Looking across to the city from the 10th floor of work  you couldn't see most of the tower blocks

In contrast today was clear and sunny and very warm, up to 17 degrees C (62F) 

So John and I made the most of the weather with a trip into London to go to an art exhibition at the Tate Britain and then later we took Scamp for a long walk on the common. This afternoon I got the cutting done for the baby quilt and made a start on the stitching.

This quilt should go together very quickly.  I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow. 

Lyndsey