Waste Not, Want Not

A lot of people think paper piecing is wasteful. I don't spend time to cut the pieces exactly the size I need them. To the contrary--I whack off a nice size piece to be sure when I flip it over, it won't end up too small. Those of you who paper piece, know how frustrating that is!

When I finished the last runner, I was left with this little heap of scraps on the ironing board.
Instead of throwing them out, I decided to make some 3-inch foundations to use for scrappy star blocks.

I also used black scraps from a previous runner and a bit of the new blue striped fabric I bought last week. I plan to use the same neutral background for all the blocks.

Were it not for paper piecing most of us would never use up tiny scraps like those above, nor attempt blocks these small.


The one with the black has 13 pieces in it -- that's a lot for a 3-inch block! So I guess you can make the case that PP is wasteful, but you can also make a case that it's a frugal method of quilt making (if you use those tiny scraps).

And who would not want to use them, when you can fit all those tiny blocks into stars with this much detail?



I will be spending my small bits of free time this week making more of them. I wonder how many I will get from that pile?