ScrapHappy August 2021

Time for something completely useless…

On a recent scavenge through the garage on the search for an 18cm beige metal zip, I came across this little plywood bird at the bottom of one of many boxes. Presumably I’d bought it years ago when I had mosaic on the brain but at some point had decorated one side with pale blue and floral fabric. Glued on. A bit of gold paint. A dot for an eye. Other side blank. No idea what the plan was. Most likely no plan. Still no plan, but I decided to quickly do something with the blank side so I could use it for this month’s ScrapHappy.

Clearly Bird was calling out for some Jekyll and Hyde treatment. I stuck on a scrap of metallic black fabric, some sequins that were in a box donated by a friend (getting rid of her unwanted craft supplies), and 3 snippets of narrow silver ribbon. I strung some beads on a bit of transparent sewing thread and Bird now hangs on a cuphook above my desk as a permanent reminder Not To Buy Anything Unless I Have A Clear Purpose In Mind.

And that, my friends, is my contribution for this month.

* ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, socks or a sculpture. Anything made of scraps is eligible. It is hosted by Kate and Gun. Email Kate at Tall Tales from Chiconia at the address on her Contact Me page, or leave a comment on her ScrapHappy Post. You can also contact Gun via her blog to join.

PS. I found 172 zips, none of them the right colour or length.

Advertisement

I never said I was an artist…

…but I’ll have a bash at some freehand stuff when the need arises. The need just did, when one of my favourite customers phoned to ask me for a blue bird in flight on the corner of a pillow case for her granddaughter. For tomorrow. Yikes. I don’t have a screen with the right kind of bird to use, so it had to be a quick work-around.

Print picture of bird. Cut out shape. Add bits of paper here and there where you don’t want the ink to go through, including the background, stick it all together with tape, have a practice run on a piece of waste fabric (actually, is there ever such a thing?) and give it a go! You get this:

Then you play around with some different shades of blue and a teeny weeny #1 paintbrush…

Okay, it’s true that this resembles no bird in the real world, but I think it’s fair to say that it most definitely is a bird, and it’s blue, and it’s on the wing.

Right, back to sewing. The October Made in the Cape artisan market opens again on Thursday, so I need to have everything ready by Wednesday night. I never learn, and I always panic…