ScrapHappy May

It's the 15th of the month, and that time again to produce any work made from scraps. I just have two small scrappy projects this month.  Firstly, although I haven't done very much sewing in the last month, I did manage to make a few red hexies for the redwork quilt I posted about back in February. I haven't done a lot more on it, but had a bit of a reprieve on the deadline. You may remember I'd been working on it for a friend's 75th birthday gift, and was wanting it finished by the end of March, but Christine's sister decided they should go overseas to celebrate their milestone birthdays.... it was her 70th this year. Since it was all a bit rushed, and she was leaving the day after her birthday, she suggested we celebrate when she got back, so I still have a couple of weeks to work on getting the top pieced, if not the whole quilt finished.

I've also managed to prep the pieces ready to make flying geese blocks to fill in around the redwork embroideries I've done. Now that I'm feeling better, and more focused, I'll put the blocks back up on the design wall and work out where these will go, and what else I need to do.

 My second project is a bit different, and is one where I've used paper scraps.  I've had these metal card file boxes since 1987, carrying around the country with me, each time I moved, knowing ....hoping!.....someday I'd find a use for them.

They have a bit of history behind them. Back in the 80s I worked for DoCs (the welfare) in Western Australia, and these boxes were used to keep the card files of anyone who came into the office requesting a food voucher. Not a very good system, as there was no-cross-referencing with other offices, and people could go from office to office and claim a food voucher many times in a week. It was a very exciting time when all those handwritten records could be entered onto a database, and with the tap of a button, we could see when and how often a person was applying for assistance and respond accordingly.

Of course, the metal boxes were obsolete then and were to be thrown out, so I rescued these two, thinking I'd "do something with them".  Well it only took me 30 odd years, and so, with the help of some discarded seed catalogues, this one's being turned into a seed storage box. 

I gessoed the base of the box, then tore words and pictures and layered them all over, brushing on more gesso as I went. They're not finished yet, one side to go, but I'll add a layer of matte medium over all for protection, and fill up with seeds. It's been good to have a fairly mindless project to keep me busy, and great to have all my seeds in one place, and easily found. 

 Here are links to others who might have a scrappy project, there's always interesting ideas and inspiration, and they're a good read even if there's no scrappy post.

 Kate (me!), Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline and Sue L.

till next time............