Bayview Quilt Shop for Scraps: SCRAP Is Open Tuesday-Sunday

A scrap quilt needs variety more than yardage, and the cheapest way to get variety in San Francisco is a warehouse in the Bayview rather than a boutique. SCRAP, the nonprofit creative reuse depot, opened its own building at 141 Industrial St on Saturday, August 15, 2026, and its fabric aisle is stocked with donated remnants, upholstery samples and designer offcuts. The depot is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm, and anyone can walk in.

SCRAP stands for Scroungers' Center for Reusable Art Parts. It was founded in 1976 by Anne Marie Theilen, who ran the San Francisco Arts Commission's Neighborhood Arts Program, and the sculptor Ruth Asawa, who served as founding board president for nearly two decades. Their artists-in-schools program had teachers but no money for supplies, while local businesses were throwing out printed paper, interior designers' fabric samples and industrial offcuts, so they started collecting them.

That origin explains why fabric has always been part of the mix. For about 25 years SCRAP rented a Bayview warehouse from the school district, and when SFUSD scheduled that building for demolition to make room for a central kitchen, the nonprofit bought a building of its own just down the road. Its capital campaign aims to raise $7.5 million, and the new depot has twice the floor space of the old one.

The move itself was a small civic victory. Steve Oliver and his son Josh, whose construction firm has decades of nonprofit real estate work, are leading the build-out and financing, and Cavagnero and Associates pledged 1,100 hours of pro-bono architectural design. SCRAP calls 2025 the most successful year in its nearly 50-year history, and 48 Hills named it an Editors' Pick in its Best of the Bay 2026, describing the new home as giant and still a bonanza for crafters.

The depot sorts donations by type, so fabric, notions and yarn each have their own sections next to paper, beads, frames and a materials bay of wood, metal and tile. Stock is whatever came in that week, which is the point for a scrap quilter. One visit might turn up rolls of upholstery cotton, a stack of designer swatch books, denim offcuts or a bag of calico remnants that someone cleared out of a sewing room. Because the aisles change constantly, regulars come back often, and SCRAP posts photos of new arrivals from the depot floor on its Instagram account, @scrapsf, which is the quickest way to spot a fresh load of textiles before a weekend visit.

Beyond fabric, the notions section is worth a pass for thread, buttons and zippers, and a large part of the inventory of General Bead, the family-run store that was San Francisco's biggest bead shop for nearly four decades, has landed on SCRAP's shelves. Embellished quilt labels and crazy-quilt seams are where those beads earn their keep.

SCRAP runs public creative reuse workshops in a new light-filled classroom at the depot, taught by Bay Area artists and booked through Eventbrite, where popular sessions sell out. The autumn 2026 calendar leaned toward textiles: a Boroboro Japanese mending class with Dorothy Yuki turned repurposed fabric into a bag using traditional boro stitching by hand and machine, and a botanical dyeing session eco-printed natural cloth with Bay Area plants.

Boro is the obvious bridge to quilting, since its layered patches and running stitches are close cousins of hand quilting and sashiko. Follow SCRAP on Eventbrite to see new dates as soon as they are posted, and bring washed fabric and your own scissors if a class description says you may. SCRAP also runs a youth Sustainable Fashion Design program that teaches teenagers to upcycle thrifted clothes.

Quilters usually end up on both sides of the counter. SCRAP takes material donations at the depot, but drop-offs follow their own calendar: donations are paused from October 25 to November 2, and from Tuesday, November 3, the drop-off window runs Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 3pm. An appointment is needed for more than two boxes, and SCRAP asks donors to read its donation guidelines first.

Bring clean, folded cuts and label any you know the fibre of, since that makes them easier to sort and sell. Batting scraps, partial bolts and fat quarters from an unfinished project are exactly the kind of leftovers that turn into another quilter's border, and every purchase funds the nonprofit's arts education programs.

The depot sits mid-block on Industrial Street in the Silver Terrace corner of the Bayview, close to where Alemany Boulevard crosses Bayshore Boulevard and the 101 and 280 freeways meet. There is a gated parking lot on site, entered only through the gate on Industrial, which makes it easy to load bags of fabric. From the East Bay or the South Bay, SCRAP suggests the train plus a bus or shuttle.

Time a Saturday trip around the Alemany Farmers' Market, the city-run market a short drive west along Alemany Boulevard, for produce and lunch before you dig through the bins. For a longer outing, Third Street and the Bayview's commercial strip are a few minutes east by car, along the T Third light-rail line.

Address: SCRAP Depot, 141 Industrial St, San Francisco, CA 94124, in the Bayview. Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm, closed Monday. Donations: paused October 25 to November 2, then Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 3pm from November 3, by appointment for more than two boxes. Parking: gated lot on site. Online: SCRAP also sells antiques, books and collectibles on its eBay storefront, with pickup at the depot.