What do you do with your scraps?

Help!  I have an eight-drawer dressor that is absolutely full of fabric scraps from various sewing projects and I just don't know what to do with them.  I do save my cotton scraps for scrap quilts and have reduced the pile a little that way, but I also have drawers of flannel left over from pajamas I make every Christmas, and then I have leftovers in a variety of fabrics from making clothing.  In desperation I have started to make quilts out of flannel just to reduce the stash!  I do throw away the tiny pieces but just can't bring myself to dispose of larger pieces that could be used for "something"  Any ideas?

If you have kids it's nice to let them have their own scrap basket to play with.  My girls really enjoy using larger scraps as temporary doll blankets, "decorations" around the room, pretend present wrappings, etc.  That doesn't actually get rid of them, but at least you don't feel guilty that they're being wasted.  Maybe you could use them to stuff pillows if they're nice and soft?  And then of course there's always Ebay.  Yes, people do actually buy fabric scrap bags if you make them cheap.  (I've bought a few myself.)

Our local thrift store accepts donations of fabric scraps.  They make quilts for auction or they sell bags of scraps.

I'm not enough of a quilter to keep up with my scraps, so I give mine to a friend who makes lots of quilts. It was hard to part with them but I needed the space, and I knew the scraps would be put to good use!

Thanks for the great ideas!  I am looking forward to having drawer space for some new fabric! 

I use flannel scraps to make re-usable "paper" towels. 

I've given huge boxes to preschools and kindergarten classrooms. 

I've let my girls sew little practice stitches on some scraps.  They(or you) could also make sachets, doll pillows/clothes and such as well.

The Melly & Me blog has a great scrappy cabin quilt challenge.  http://mellyandme.typepad.com/photos/scrappy_cabin_challenge_t/100_0673_00_1.html

I was thinking of giving it a whirl.

Thanks for the scap quilt instructions - I love foundation piecing and will definitely be giving that one a try! 
I cleaned out my scrap drawers this week-end, organized all the quilting scraps by size (I still can't bear to part with them...) and brought another huge bag of my other scraps to school this morning to replenish the supply in our art room.  I also added to my supply of flannel "paper towels" (and I thought I was the only one who did this...they make great white-board erasers too!)  Thanks for all your ideas!  I hope someday I will have children of my own who will like using some of my scraps (I actually found several things I had made out of my mother's scraps when I was cleaning out those drawers!). 

I love the way that scrappy challenge block looks, but I'm a little lost as to why you need the foundation interfacing?  I've made tons of log cabin blogs out of scraps and didn't use any foundation...I thought they turned out perfectly, but now I'm not sure, since I was making them wrong.    Anyone have any further info on whether or not the foundation is absolutely necessary?

I have no idea why they use a foundation other than it helps with the layout and gives a little more support.  It probably makes for a sturdier quilt when you are done, but I'm not sure. 

I've made many many "mile a minute" quilts.  Here's the tutorial- they're super simple:

http://quiltingisstillmypassion.blogspot.com/2007/07/mile-minute-blocks-photo-tutorial.html

Here are a few of the ones I've made:




I love that you just whack the larger scraps down to strips with a rotary cutter and ruler, and then have at it.  They end up all jumbled and cute, then I square off the edges of each block and put the squares together.  I don't use a foundation, because I like the look when they get a bit uneven as you sew. They're squared off before sewing together, so that means I don't really need something to keep them stable as they're going together.  I think the foundation would help if you don't want that look.

And totally gratuitous cheesy picture of my nieces and nephew with their quilts:

wow!  that quilt is so great looking!  do you use all the same type of fabrics for something like that?  All cottons or knits or whatever?  Or can you just really throw everything in and it'll work itself out?  I would love to make a quilt but I'm a bit intimidated by it if the truth has to come out.   

You should sew them all together to create patchwork accessories like a sewing machine cover, baby bibs, headbands, a scarf, etc. You could also sew baby items (or doll clothes) because it uses very little fabric. On Michael Miller's blog, you can find a few great patterns, like baby toys or booties. Or become addicted to fabric applique just like me. I don't ever have enough fabric scraps anymore!

Good luck!