That Basket of Scraps - January One Monthly Goal

A prior commitment kept me from sorting my scrap basket until last Saturday.  I wasn't sure I'd meet my One Monthly Goal.  But the basket is empty and now resides with the other laundry baskets.  These are photos of what I found inside.

Purple is one of my least-favorite colors, but I love this print!  I have four strips about 30" long and 2½" wide.

That fabric with the blue background with yellow flowers, above,--maybe it should go in the yellow box.

How did I come to have so many pink scraps!!!

Below are the boxes I sorted the scraps into.  Not the best permanent option but I'll try it until I can decide whether a system like this works for me.  And they were free; it's always nice not to spend money on something that might not work.  I really am a scrap quilter but I put scraps back with their larger "parent" pieces of fabric until they're too small to be of much use.  I don't naturally gravitate to scrap boxes but maybe I can figure out a way for this system to work for me.  The previous non-system definitely wasn't working.  (I also have a stack of plastic shoe boxes with tiny scraps and I haven't touched them since I sorted them over a year ago.)

Odds and ends from the basket:  a cut-off piece of farm/feed sack images from yardage; four pinwheel quilt blocks, two of each; a large quilt label; and an embroidery pattern for a chair back.  Whatever to do with them.

I bought a bag of retro-style prints, vintage 1940s and 1950s, for a dollar or two at a quilt show.  Pieces for quilt blocks are already cut and some of the larger pieces already have outlines traced for cutting.  In pen.  I used alcohol and Dawn dish soap to try to get the marks out but neither worked.  I'm not sure what else to try.  Goop or Fels Naphtha, maybe.

I'm not currently interested in making a quilt with these vintage-style pieces but I can't throw them out, either.  I try to imagine how to re-cut them to make a simple block.  Maybe small Dresden Plates?   Or maybe you have an idea or suggestion?

Below are three shirts I'd already cut apart that were in the basket.  I put them with other shirts to be pressed.

And now I have an empty basket.  Hooray!

Sadly, I'm not finished with sorting scraps.  This stack has been sitting beside my cutting mat for too long.

And these have been sitting behind the cutting mat for even longer. 

The pieces below have been in the plastic bag I purchased the bag I bought at a small quilt show for a dollar.  There are lots of half-square triangles and squares, all about 3" or 3½"  These are mostly jewel tones in golds, blues, reds, purples, and greens.  I should figure out a quilt for these.

These are not the only scraps I have to manage....  As you can guess, scrap management is not my strength.  I'm probably better at creating scraps and making smaller scraps.  I keep thinking about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I don't want to make a rainbow quilt but if I chose one block pattern for each color and rotated through, I would eventually end up with enough blocks for several quilts, right?

Emptying that basket and sorting its contents was my One Monthly Goal for January.  I'm pleased to have met the goal. 

I'm linking this post to January One Monthly Goal Finish at Elm Street Quilts.  Thank you for hosting, Patty.

I'm also linking to Oh, Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework.  Thank you, Cynthia.

--Nancy.