I put out the universe that I needed a pile of scraps so I could try doing free motion applique. To do applique you need a stash of lots of colors and prints to be able to color in the picture you wish to create. My stash is lacking. So I made a wish in my heart for scraps to find their way to me.
Not too long after my dreams were answered! A fellow member of a small quilt group was given a woman’s fabric collection from her craft room. It had little nuggets of UFO (unfinished object) sprinkled in the pile. She offered it to us. I scooped up all the little pieces- I was thrilled! When I got home and saw the pile of little tiny pieces of bits and bobs and for the most part, no piece that was bigger than 3 inches- I asked myself “What did I get myself into?”– I am clearly crazy.
Daunted by this huge pile, I pulled out one color grouping. It is burgundy and green. She clearly had done a quilt in this grouping of fabric. There were some sections of strips of fabric sewn together left. And come selvedge irregular ends of the sewn together strips.
I have a new puppy who needs lots of attention so I wanted to do some sewing in the living room. (my main sewing machine is set up in a sewing room that puppies are not allowed in) I bought an antique sewing machine a year ago. Its FeatherWeight Singer sewing machine from 1929. The same kind of sewing machine my mother owned as I grew up. In my early days I learned to sew my doll clothes on it. So it was a passion purchase but I had never pulled it out of the case to actually use. I decided this was the perfect excuse to do so.
I am a really good sewer, but every machine has its own personality. With this Singer sewing machine I I hit a learning curve on how it handles. It feels so different to use. It is lovely and I got the hang of it. It will just take time to get to where I use it without needing to think about it.
I pieced most of my projects together with the antique machine but when I wanted to do the top stitching and quilt it I wanted to use my Pfaff. It has many features that just make sewing easier and I am more confident using it. Some features include: a wider neck to fit the projects in and a walking foot to feed the quilting stuff through.
Since I didn’t have large pieces of fabric and I didnt use any other fabrics other than what was in this stash, I think my projects may be a bit busy. But I am deciding to not overthink it. And definitely feel that shopping for more matching fabric destroys the whole point of the scrapy project.
I created 5 Reading pocket pillows 14 x 14. 2 pencil pouches and 4 book marks. (And two mini pillows – sewing pocket pincushions- not finished yet so not shown here). the bookmarks need some tassels – so not finished yet either.
It took me two days to complete this so far. I am really proud of myself for using almost every last scrap of fabric into usable products. Practically no waste whatsoever. I imagine the original sewer would be really happy that their UFOs found their way into the world. Such a good girl, right? …but didnt I just forget what my original wish was? I didn’t leave any fabric scraps big enough of being worthy of doing an applique!!!! Can you believe it!!!
Here is the small pile of what is left.
Next is to give the a the projects a final pressing. And of course as I was turning them right side out one of the invisible zipper busts! UGH, so I have to rip one out and rework it all over. So it is not done… sigh. I was really ready to be done with this project. Once I do that I’ll get them all ready for a proper photoshoot and then list them for sale in the cushions section.
Here are the Reading Pocket pillows before being pressed and stuffed. It has my Ipad in it to show how nicely it will fit.
