Scrap Quilt While You Sew Other Projects - Tutorial

I'm all about saving time and money.  When I first heard of chain-piecing, I really latched onto it.  I discovered that not only did it prevent the little bird's nest knot on the underside of the fabric when starting and that it saved thread, (Have you ever noticed how much thread is thrown away as you sew?  You could stuff a doll with it!), but it also kept a whole line of pieces together so I didn't have to get up and down as much as I was sewing.  I could get into my groove and go.

I then learned that if you used a little scrap of fabric - about 1-1.5" wide and sewed over that at the end of the chain, you had all the benefits of chain piecing indefinitely.  Cool.  I was converted to the method.

Then as I was reading a quilting book (Cut the Scraps! by Joan Ford, pg. 35), she mentioned how she always had 2 projects going at once.  The main one and a secondary one that was done over a long period of time.  Here's how it works.
  You are sewing along and come to a place where you need to remove your sewing from the machine.  You reach into your little box of pre-cut pieces and sew a couple together, using these as your holder while you remove your sewing project.  When you begin sewing again, remove the secondary project and put it off to the side.

This first photo is of two scraps I am sewing together to make longer strips. When I have sewn these together, I can remove the black thing behind it that I was sewing.

The second photo is of a little plastic container I use to contain my secondary project.  In this case, I began accumulating 1" strips - things that others were throwing away and I thought, "Surely something can be made from these!"  I think that it's much easier to do this if the secondary project is purely scrappy in design.  You don't want to have to keep two projects in mind and remember which one you are working on.

One inch strips may not be your cup of tea, but choose some scrap project - especially if it's a "grab bag" style, and you can put those scraps to good use. 

What I am doing is sewing 1" x 9" strips together, or if the 1" pieces are smaller than that, I am piecing then together to make longer strips which I then cut down to about 9" strips.  I sew them together, little by little.  When I have 16 strips sewn together, I iron it (I know, I'm waiting until the end), and then trim the square to 8.5" x 8.5."  When I get enough of those squares made, I can make them into a quilt.  I've been working on this for the last 2 years and have 15 squares out of the 80-120 I need to make a full or queen, so it will be a while before I have it complete, but, I love that I can be wasting nothing - no fabric, no thread.

See finished quilt here.