ReCycling, RePurposing, ReUsing

I spent the day cutting fabric scraps into squares (I write this post the night before it goes live). It was another day filled with surprises. Recently, one of my Cousins sent me a box of treasures that I went through again this morning. My Cuz has an eye for the most interesting things. I spent well over an hour just looking at them over and over.

Rex sent me another container of buttons and I love sorting them. My little town here doesn't have access to such unique things. Always makes me wonder what their stories are. If buttons could only talk!

I had won a swapbot WTA (winner take all) in January. If you sign up for it and win, everyone else who signed up sends you something. Two packages came today filled with some amazing blank stationary, fat quarters, feathers, a candle and ribbons. I started to think that people were so generous, and realize that I opened to receive all manner of good things.

As I put together a PIF quilt last week, I realized that all this fabric was taking up a lot of room and could make up more of these simple quilts. Good fabric runs over $12 a yard, so all these pieces make a difference when they join as a utility quilt. I think these kind of scrappy randomly assembled quilt tops will give me an opportunity to practice free motion quilting without feeling like I was going to ruin something.

My quilting without the machine gave me time to cut. The first thing I did was to pull out all the color sorted fabrics from the bins in the closet. This is the key that I discovered...it takes time to cut, to sort, to be organized. Nothing marvelous shows up in these pictures. And come to think of it, none of the movies or TV programs ever show this kind of mundane work. And I know that if my quilting machine were here, I would not be doing it. I don't know, maybe some sort of house elf comes along and does it all.

Many of the pieces that were donated to me could be squared up and sorted. I've been doing this for some time, and I've been averaging 10-15 scrap quilts each year, along with smaller projects. 

Its actually great to have a size readily available when some pattern calls for it in some way.  These are a goodly amount of the 10", 8", 6", 5", 4", 3", and 2.5" stacks. By the time I turned off the light and the cutting project was done, the stacks were quite a bit higher.

I made two more piles that included fat quarters folded in 4ths, and all the bigger pieces that were squared up.

The plan is to sort them by color and put them back in the clear containers. Right now, they are just piles.

Another container is holding the stack of 2.5" strips. I think my next project for all of these squares and strips is to colorize them. This one needs the strips to be rolled. I go into this box when I need binding, but also whenever I need 2.5" squares and can't find them elsewhere.

And I do think the first pet bed is filled. It is simply amazing just how many scraps filled this pillow. To think I've been just tossing them!

Everything that is flowing into and out of my life is really about ReCycling, RePurposing and ReUsing. All packages that came in the mail were things that folks liked for themselves, but were ok in passing them along rather than trashing them. 

Sometimes we have a dream that we will create something really great with what we buy, or what is given to us. Then time gets in the way, or we lose interest. What is so great about everything I got in the mail or all the fabric that has been given to me over the years, is that its not going to the landfill. It DOES get repurposed. 

Its quite exciting to be a part of this flow where people's consciousness is elevated at some level where they recognize the value of the Earth, and want to share the beauty that they brought into their lives.

I am grateful for such remarkable people in my life; family members, friends, and strangers who are generous, and creative.