You may think the above photo looks familiar but it is not a re-posting. I was emptying my studio wastebasket when I spotted the long strips trimmed off along the selvage when making the pillowcases. They'd gone immediately into the trash because the printed area next to the actual selvage was so narrow - no reason to save these. This was before I caught on to the idea of using up scraps from the quilt to make trinket bowls. I did a quick measure and there was exactly the width of print that I cut for strips to make the bowls. There were usable scraps from the pillowcase cuffs as well as 4 inches of raindrop fabric (seen at left) to continue cutting up, so it all looked like enough for another trinket bowl.
And indeed it was.
I decided to look a little deeper into what was in the bag where I'd been tossing fabric scraps I thought I could use for bowls. There was quite a bit of a fabric used as backing for another baby quilt I'd made for a nephew's baby, one where the mother had a specific pattern and fabric choice in mind. I never really liked this fabric - too kind of 60's pop for me but at least had teal in it which is a favorite color of mine. One nice thing about these narrow strips that wrap around the clothesline is that much of the print becomes indistinguishable so I knew this was a good use for this fabric I'm not keen on. You'd never guess what it looked like before being cut up and it pairs well with the raindrop fabric.
I also found more pink strips in that bag, puzzled as to where they came from but they will go into yet another bowl with this floral, still working on making it all go away. But this is reminding me too much of the biblical fishes and loaves story where no matter how much they gave away to the thousands of people being fed, there was always some left over. Quilters and their scraps apparently have the same problem. ;-)
4 comments:
Scraps always seem to multiply rather than disappear, no matter how much you try to use them up! And, I really like that '60's Pop' scrap so please keep using it! Jan in WY
Those trinket bowls are great for using scraps and doing mindless (or meditative) sewing.
So true, Sherrie!
Jan, I wish it weren't so! I have a little bit of pink fabric from the last quilt too short to cut into usable strips but too big to just toss. I used to spend time cutting down leftovers starting with the largest size square I could get and decreasing down to as small as 1-3/4 inches (there was a project using these that got me started going that small) but since I seldom dip into the shoeboxes holding these scrap squares anymore, I'm not very motivated to spend time doing that. Maybe I'll try some fabric collaging, something I've always wanted to work on. In the meantime yes, that pop fabric will keep getting sliced into bowl strips. :-)
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