ScrapHappy # october

It’s 15th of the month, the day to link up with other ScrapHappy people around the world and play around with our scraps.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule,
Gwen, Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear,
Carol, Preeti, Edith, Debbierose and Esther

Last month I didn’t have anything to show you except this photo

of leftover yarns and a pattern I’d found on the internet by Zhaya Designs.  The pattern is to make what Zhaya calls “smooching balls”.  I thought I’d give them a go.

Mine are still a work in progress.  I’ve made one little “fellow” but he needs to have his pink feet sewn on and then some kind of hair & facial featurees.  The second one is just a stuffed ball for the moment.  Also needs a face, legs and some kind of hair.

ScrapHappy # September (no show)

Hello folks, today is the monthly link up with ScrapHappy people all over the world.

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear,
Carol, Preeti, Edith ,  Debbierose

and newest member Jule.

The idea being to motivate each other to use up scraps, of anything & everything.  Unfortunately, while I have been making more scraps, through patchwork, knitting and crochet, I didn’t actually get around to making anything with them this month.

However . . . I found a lovely crochet pattern on Zhaya Designs – ever so simple – and for next time, I hope to be able to show you

something along these lines.  Zhaya calls these “smooching balls”.  They can be made any shape, any colours, and are a perfect way to use up those remnants from other knitting projects where there’s still a fair bit left, but not enough to attempt even a doll-sized garment, for fear of running out.  I’m thinking these would be fun stuffed with a small sachet of rice/cherry stones or something similarly weighty, to become fun beanbags for kids.

ScrapHappy # August

Today is the day to link up with fellow ScrapHappy people.  Today also falls on the same day as my usual SAL update, so if you came looking for that, it’ll be in a slightly later post.

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2,
Bear, Carol, Preeti, Edith

My photo for August was actually taken in July, only shortly after the last Scraphappy day . . . as I crocheted some more squares for the local yarn bomb.

None of them are terribly “pretty” but I really was going through the dregs of my leftovers.  There was a masked, socially distanced, get-together at the end of July to assemble squares with other ladies, at the local library.  I was rather disappointed to see the poor turnout, and the rather pitiful pile of squares that had been contributed. But, living in a village, population 1600, there weren’t very many local knitters or crocheters to participate.  We assembled the squares (alternating sizes, and trying to get a variety of colour) into five lengths of bunting.  Sadly, I haven’t been able to take photos because the bunting has been hung inside the library, and it’s currently closed for summer hols.

ScrapHappy # July

Time to link up with everyone in the ScrapHappy group

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2,
Bear, Carol, Preeti, Edith

and big warm welcome to Debbierose who joins us this time.

and to show what scraps I’ve been playing with.  Actually more of the same . . . as I finished off 6 placemats I’ve been working on, made using up lots of cheerful 2.5″ squares.

Last time I had 6 “tops”

Since then, I zigzagged bands of scrap wadding together to make pieces large enough for the mats,

and delved into my stash of fabrics to be reused/recycled (using 2 old tablecloths for backing fabric and binding).

ScrapHappy # June

Hello everyone! it’s the monthly link up with

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Noreen,
Bear, Carol, Preeti and Edith

to talk about things scrappy!  I’ve been carrying on assembling 2.5″ squares.  I do love cutting small squares when tidying up my scraps, and at the moment, I’m assembling into placemat tops.  Haven’t used a table cloth in decades, but the husband and I like to have our dinner plates on a mat – it just makes the table look more “set”.

The current series now looks like this.

Six tops, all 9 x 6 squares, which will give a finished size of 18″ x 12″.  Quite a few fabrics make an appearance several times, but no two tops are the same.  They’re all completely random which I think makes for bright & cheerful.  Now to sandwich, quilt & bind!

ScrapHappy #May

It’s that time of the month again! Time to link up with

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Noreen,
Bear, Carol, Preeti and Edith

To talk about scrap happiness.  For this month, I’ve been doing more of the same from last month – having fun going through my scrap bag and cutting 2.5″ squares where possible from all sorts of colours & prints, left over from past projects.  And, because the husband rather likes the place mats I made last month, I’m assembling squares to make some more.

Making them slightly smaller this time. Last month I made 10 x 7 squares, so they turned out a very generous size at 20″ x 14″.  This time, I decided 9 x 6 squares would be plenty big enough.

Have got 2 tops assembled, and enough squares prepped to make another four (2 here in progress).

 

 

ScrapHappy # April (and an unbirthday)

I had fun with scrappy fabrics for this ScrapHappy post.  My scrap bags were rather full of lots of very bright (and many floral) fabrics left over from clothes making.  I always seem to end up with lots of wierd shaped offcuts when clothes making.  The easiest thing to do was press and slice up into 2.5″ squares . . . and once that was done, I spent some very enjoyable hours piecing squares together randomly.

I could probably have continued indefinitely, and assembled enough to make a quilt top but I had placemats in mind when I began.  Quilts are pretty, but placemats are more useful (in my opinion).  The fronts are completely scrappy . . . for the binding & backing fabric however, I was stash busting with larger pieces of leftovers.

Flamingos on the back and a plain turquoise for binding.  And three very bright placemats with fabrics to remind me of past sewing projects.  There are bunnies & birds from baby quilts;  feathers, flamingos, florals, butterflies & llamas from clothes-making projects; dots & spots from patchwork projects . . . so many happy sewing memories!

Anyway . . . one of these mats, was packaged up and sent to Yvonne, as an unbirthday gift.  This one, in fact.

The other two are for the husband & myself for every day use.  Mats finished at approx 14″ x 20″ but they’ll probably shrink up a bit in the first wash.

I’m linking to a very creative group of people, organised by Kate & Gun for ScrapHappy.

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Nancy, Dawn 2, Noreen,
Bear, Carol, Preeti and Edith

 

ScrapHappy # March

Time to link up with the ScrapHappy gang, and get creative.

 

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Nancy, Dawn 2, Noreen,
Bear and Carol

For this time around, I did some re-using, which I’m going to count as scraps because otherwise some stuff would have just been binned.

I recently bought myself a new iron-board cover, purple, of course.

Which left me looking at the old ironing board cover, and thinking it wasn’t being very ecological just to throw it in the bin.  It wasn’t ripped or anything. The surface just looked all brown & burned, with unsightly water-marks all over from when I’m steam-ironing.  Not the sort of thing you’d want to be ironing crisp patchwork blocks on, I think you’ll agree.

Anyhow . . . the husband had put in a request for a padded workbench mat.  Difficult to explain, but he does a fair amount of renovating old wooden things, and he therefore needed a padded mat to protect the newly renovated wood from the hard surface of his workbench.  I didn’t want to waste decent wadding on something like that, hence, the light bulb over my head and a new use found for the above.

For some reason, my Juki started playing up, as I tried to sew through 2 layers of old curtain, with the ironing board cover sandwiched between.  Ended up setting old lady Singer 99k up, to do the main assembly job, and she was thrilled to be back in active service.

This is the mat in place.  I even made use of the curtain ring bits, as a design feature, because they give extra weight to keep the flaps down, therefore to keep the mat in place.  Once that was done, I then found myself with some leftover ironing board cover.

Cut two pieces, approx 6″ x 12″ and overlocked.  Got what I needed from the old curtain.  And I made a pair of oven mitts.

I didn’t even try to make oven gloves, with thumbs.  Nor did I try to make them pretty, as you can see by visible overlocked edges  Just made these, with space to slide four fingers under, and a loop to hang.  They do the job, although you do need to wear both when getting a dish out of the oven.

And . . . couldn’t resist taking a photo to show you the final scraps that went in the bin.

ScrapHappy # February

It’s 15th of the month, time to link up with an international group of bloggers who all enjoy making use of their scraps.

Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2 and Noreen

For this time, I delved into my bag of leftover and odd ball yarns

because, when visiting my local library the other week, I was given this flyer.

Apparently, our little village (population 1600) is going to take part in a yarn bomb later on in the year.  Knitters and crocheters have been asked to make squares: 20cm x 20cm and/or 15cm x 15cm which will be sewn together to decorate some of the buildings in the village centre.  I therefore set to work, with my crochet hook and one of the charts from the Nature’s Walk CAL.

And so far, I’ve crocheted six 15cm x 15cm squares.

I also made a couple of pompoms

Templates cut from the back of a Christmas card.

to finish off a knitted doll hat.

ScrapHappy # December

After the fun I had making gift tags last time just out of a piece of pretty card . . . for this month, with Christmas in mind, I made some more tags.

A perfect project for using those small bits of aida that never seem big enough to work on a “proper” project . . . and very little thread.   I stitched lots of little squares, using patterns from the “Tiny Treasures” blackwork design by Elizabeth Almond (see link in my blog roll –  Blackwork Journey).

Each little square was then trimmed and fringed.  And, using double sided sticky tape, stuck onto card (that wasn’t strictly scraps but I had a few sheets in my stash and it was a quick mounting option).

And voilà!  37 little pretties, in festive seasonal colours that can either be hung in the tree as décorations or used a gift tags on présents!

I’m linking with a big bunch of ScrapHappy members.

Kate , Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire,
Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera, Nanette, Ann and Kym