Scrapping Time

On my last two retreats I chose to empty my fish bowls full of scraps, press them, and cut them into strips to be used in charity quilts. You may remember the story of my fishbowls. It began as a good use for an old fish bowl, and became something my grandkids looked forward to playing with (click here for that post).

Over the years my fishbowl has overflowed into two additional fishbowls. The strips I cut recently were then thrown into a plastic bag and 2 lapsized tops resulted:

One thing that bothered me as I began working with the bag ‘o scraps was that I’d thrown a lot of stuff in those bowls: chunks, orphan blocks, and loads of half-square triangles. They needed to be sorted – and that’s what I did. I labeled my bowls,

and realized I need one more for the remaining long strips.

I also found leftovers from projects that really needed to be put together. There were some greens from a memory quilt we made after our trip to Ireland in 2010:

The embroidered pieces never made it into that quilt, and I don’t remember why I made the circle block.

After a bit of cutting, arranging, and stitching I ended up with a delightful little quilt.

Then I grabbed leftovers from two different projects that looked pretty together. The blue/white/yellow half-square triangles were made in a class I took in Paducah last year, and I have no idea where the curved floral pieces came from (I may have pulled them out of someone else’s trash during a class).

I trimmed and played, and finally decided on a small table runner arrangement that used almost all the pieces.

It feels Springlike (see photo at the top of this page) – and the pieces are out of the fishbowl!!!

The half square triangle blocks (hst) from the previous project were made in a class with Beth Helfter in which we also made hst blocks with contrasting flanges in the seams. While in Hamilton, MO last year I bought a “Spring Sling” purse pattern, and during a recent shop hop I found a gorgeous bright fabric on a sale rack. These all were unearthed as I dug through my scraps, and the piles on my studio counter, and I had the purse done in time for Easter.

Ooh. It’s such fun to use up the things that are sitting around as PIMMs (projects in my mind). Have I inspired you to play with your previous purchases, leftovers, and scraps???

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And one more thing…

My granddaughter Sommer (on the far right in the kids photo above 😊) loves to draw and make bracelets, but has had no interest in sewing for a number of years. Well, a few weeks ago I showed her some snap bags I was making for a charity boutique (thanks for the idea Deb!). Sommer really liked them and when I told her I’d teach her how to make one, she was all for it. She had fun choosing fabrics from my “chunky” scraps, and was a natural at the machine.

She had it sewn together in under an hour.

Simply search for “snap bag tutorials” to find instructions online to make your own.