December 15, 2009

my vegetative state

Over the summer I had a fortuitous encounter with Freecycle.  I posted a request for fabric scraps, and was answered by a lady whose grandmother had collected BAGS of scraps from her lifetime of projects.  (BAGS = 5 large black trash bags full).  Some of the scraps were tiny, less than 1"x1", while there was yardage of others.  There was even a kimono in there.  Boo yah.  Let the games begin.

My first job was to sort everything (loosely) by "color" - I wish I had taken a picture to show you my billowing piles of blues, greens, pinks/oranges, yellows, denims, flannels, polyesters (yuk), stripes, and faux furs.  I sorted for hours.

Then came the fun part ... doing something with these scraps!

Our garden was bountiful at the time, so I had vegetables on the brain ...



So, here's what I did: I put a scrap on a white background.  I set up my machine as if I were going to free-motion quilt (lower the feed dogs, attach my darning foot, and change the stitch length to "0"), and then I literally drew my design over the scraps.  In the one above, I went for a set of green peas.  Below, some carrots and a radish (whose design my friend Laura helped me come up with):



So, well, maybe I got carried away.  I don't care, though.  They're just so much fun ... carrots are my particular favorite, probably because they're so distinctive.  (I confess: I tried to do a pear.  It ended up looking somewhat like a green egg.  DISCARD!)

So, a lot of them have gotten turned into pot holders.
Some became wall hangings.
Others are still waiting.



More ideas?

1 comment:

  1. These are great! Never before have I seen veggies with so much personality! Pot holders, wall hangings... sounds like you've about got it covered. What about a center piece on a apron, table cloth, or even applique some to the bottom of a dress or skirt?

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