Monday, September 20, 2010

Look Underneath

Have you seen the shows about Hoarders? There are several different ones.   They show people who are addicting to saving things.  Their homes are overwhelmed with things they buy, trash they don't throw away, rotting food, and all kinds of unimaginable things. A television crew comes in and films while a team cleans their way through the house all the while making sure you are totally disgusted at the filth. The news reports about a woman whose husband told the police she was missing.  The police searched, using cadaver dogs. Her husband found her several days later under a pile of trash in their home. True story!!  Now I want to make it clear...I am not a hoarder!!  My house is somewhat in order even if I haven't dusted.  My trash is thrown away and I have vacumned in the last two days.  But I do have a little secret.  I love to save scraps.  I save scraps of all sizes.  As long as they are one inch wide and one inch long I save them.  You can always use those to start a log cabin quilt block.  The good news is that not only do I save them, I use them!  Those triangles you cut off corners?  Saved.  You make half square triangles with them and use them for all sorts of things.  Borders, blocks, whatever your imagination comes up with.  It isn't really the saving that excites me.  It's the fact you can take a scrap that a lot of people just toss in the trash and use it for something.  Kind of like the last squeeze in a bottle of shampoo.  I can't justify just tossing it.  That being said, I have been sewing lots of half square triangles.  They make great pinwheel blocks.  My sister and I have made a deal.  I sew them and she takes them and comes up with a way to use them in our kids quilts.  Nothing goes to waste!




Just a few of the thousands I have done. 



Now, on to the quilt for today.  This is one my sister made from....you guessed it...our scraps.  Isn't it amazing what some random scraps can end up being?  I think it is a great quilt.



How can you not love those bright colors?  Doesn't it make you smile just looking at it?



And you thought the front was bright?  How about these jungle animals.  No matter which side the kids look at there is lots of cheer in this quilt.  Even my cat (down in the corner) is trying to get a closer look.

There are three things I would like for you to consider from today's blog.

1.  Stop!  Don't throw away that scrap.  Someone can use it.

2.  If you don't want your scraps, the kids and I do!  We'll make a quilt for them with it. Just leave me a comment and I will return a message to you.

3.  If I go missing, please tell my husband Greg to look under the scraps!