Give a quilter an inch....

So, how small are the scraps you keep?  It seems I've been saving smaller and smaller over the past year.  It used to be nothing smaller than 2 inches.  Then I started doing smaller quilts and 1-1/2 inches was useful, so I started a bag of those. 

I LOVE Bonnie Hunter at www.quiltville.com.  Her designs and ideas are just traditional enough, but still have that 'something new' feel about them.  One of her books is on my Christmas Wish List this year.  Recently though, lots of her quilts are 'string quilts' that use pieces down to 1 inch wide strips.

So I started keeping a sandwich bag of 1 inch string scraps.  But I've realized that string quilting, as nice as it looks, isn't for me right now. 

I didn't think I'd EVER have a use for 1 inch strips.  Until yesterday when I found Modern Rails doll quilt on Lyn Brown's blog.  It's simple, and uses up those small strips, but isn't real putzy. And it's a small quilt, so a million pieces aren't required.  (Just make sure your 1/4 inch seam is accurate!)

I had mostly autumn colors in the bag, so used those - rusty red, bright yellow, dark green, black, orange, a little lime green for kick.  I tried out several background colors including several shades and patterns in tan.  But this odd piece of medium dark grey with a black leaf print really made the colors pop!

It will be a fun weekend project to work on when I can Quilt Awhile.