Clever Uses for Quilt Batting Scraps

As a long-arm quilter, and I have quite a few scraps of batting piling up in my house. And being frugal, I hate to waste them. But what do you do, especially when they're only maybe six inches wide? Well, you can actually do quite a bit with them. One of the best uses that I find is if I have the long pieces that are typically on the sides and the bottom of the quilt from being on the machine is I can use them for charity quilts.

And the way I do that is there's a wonderful book by Caywood called the "6 Hour Quilt". And you cut the fabric and the batting into six inch wide strips and then you sew it together in layers, so it's a quilt as you go type of quilt. And it is also a reversible quilt. And this is a wonderful use for those six inch wide scraps of batting. If I also have some six inch wide, or a little bit wider scraps of batting, I'll often cut them off and fit them to size for the Swiffer tool and use those instead of buying the little Swiffer pads and they work wonderfully for that.

But the number one thing I do when I finish a quilt and I've got those long scraps is I take my six inch ruler, and I just start hacking off six inch squares of batting. I have a basket right by my quilting table that I put them into. And then I have another basket with scraps of my fabric that I just use, I usually use white so that I can see colored thread on it very well or black, if my client's quilt is a darker color. And I put these right next to the actual quilt because if this is the quilt, the batting and backing fabric overhangs to the side so that it can be clamped to the clamps. And I will put the batting and the extra cloth on top and use it to check my tension real quick before I start to sew.

If you have a domestic machine, you can put it together into a quilting sandwich, have those by your machine and test your tension the same way. And it's just about the right size for whatever kind of testing you want to do. Another thing, take your batting with your straight pin, put it on your shoulder like this. And then while you're sewing, you always get these wonderful threads, and instead of throwing them on the floor, slap them onto your shoulder. When you're done for the day, take this off, throw it in the trash can and you don't have any mess to clean up.

That's one of my favorites. I also will take my batting scraps, fold them in half like this, or sometimes I'll have a screwdriver that I put in the middle, and I use it to clean the tracks in my long arm. There are a long tracks that the wheels ride in, and there's two grooves that dust and dirt and threads tend to get stuck into. And this is a perfect way to clean the tracks. It's also wonderful for when you oil your long arm, you'll oftentimes get oil under the machine.

If it's been sitting for a while on the table, or you will have it underneath the arm or under the bottom. And I just use these little scraps to mop up that excess oil and throw it out. Speaking of cleaning, it's great for cleaning your other machines in your sewing room, if you don't put a cover over them like I tend to not do so. I use this to wipe off my serger and my regular sewing machine. And then a lot of times I'll just take it and do a quick dust in my studio and these work great for picking it up.

I haven't tried them with wax yet but I would think they would work well also. So these are wonderful for dusting. Take it a step further, keep a few in your car. They're great for washing off the, or wiping off the dashboard. If you use two layers and put some fabric over it, they make wonderful coasters or the little mug mug mats that are very popular.

It's just the right size for doing that. It's a great size for Christmas ornaments. You can also take them and cut them into smaller strips than the other way. And you can make your own batting for pillows and toys. Another thing is cut them to size to put under the legs of furniture or underneath a lamp so that you don't scratch the floor or the table.

I also use some quite a bit in packing, larger pieces, small pieces. They're great for packing things when you're getting ready to ship the larger pieces. And even the small ones are great to put between your china to keep it from chipping or cracking. And so, as you can see, this wonderful little product that would normally get thrown out can suddenly have a lot of uses, even give them to teachers. And they're great for wiping off dry erase boards.

So put your thinking cap on and see how many uses you can come up with for using your batting scraps.