Exponential Scrap Replication

I've been hearing rumors of this odd feature of fabric scraps to replicate faster than they can be used but I didn't really believe it. Logic dictates that if you use something, you will decrease its quantity.  However, I now have scientific photographic proof of Exponential Scrap Replication.

Here is my scrap box before starting my Mod Mosaic Quilt:

Please note how sweet and innocent and manageable my scrap collection seems to be. So I delved right in and converted some of it to approximately four square feet of usable quilt blocks.

I was so proud of myself! I'm using up what appears to be useless material and making something cool out of them. I must be making a wonderful dent and I'm going to get at least one quilt out of this box of odd and ends and mis-cuts.

 And then... I looked back at my scrap box... and was horrified to see this:

At some point when I so naively looked away my scrap collection spawned new baby scraps.

I will have to study this phenomenon in greater detail in the near future and develop an equation to explain the logarithmic growth. However, this does bring up another, possibly more pressing question. In a change of state, matter is neither created nor destroyed.... so what matter was converted into those new scraps?

Maybe its all those socks that get lost in the dryer.

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