scrap usage

I have a pretty large scrap bin of fabric pieces too small to use for clothes, and an entire box of felt pieces. I've been trying to cut down on the accumulation by going through the scrap box and setting aside pieces to use in quilts in the future - it hasn't gotten very far yet, but at least it's started! I came up with another idea for a new quilt of 2.5-inch "postage stamp" squares, and have three 12-inch squares already done for it. Well ... one of them needs to be tossed and done again, because it was my first one - the learning curve is steep on precision piecing ... But still! I did it! And the third one was much better!

I have some small fleece pieces too, leftover from baby blankets made for nieces and nephews. So kind of at random, I started sewing them into little pillows just big enough for a kid's head to use while traveling. Taking little pillows camping and to Grandma's will save a lot of room in the van. Even better - the girls sewed the pillows themselves.

And it's Easter, and I don't like the big straw Easter baskets that just take up tons of space if they don't get crushed and ruined within a couple of days (total waste of money) ... I made these Halloween trick-or-treat bags a loooong time ago, and decided to do the same thing for Easter this year. Ten bags later ... our five girls, the two cousins who recently moved to Hartford, and three friends who were visiting from DC for the weekend. These are the bags that stayed here. I used whole 9x12 pieces of felt for the body of the bags, and scraps for the handles and decorations. We also got into the box full of ribbon scraps, and even used some buttons (the yellow flowers on the purple bag). It was a combination of sewing and heavy use of the hot glue gun.

And the bags in use!