Weighed Down By Scraps

Do you remember that I used to give my fabric scraps away at the end of every project/quilt that I made?

Actually ... lets go back further.  I used to THROW THE SCRAPS IN THE BIN after every project/quilt that I made. 

Most of you were aghast by my actions, and I agree it was very wasteful.  So I made the decision to give them away instead.  This kept most of the people reading this little blog happy BUT there was still a few that were aghast that I was giving these little treasures away.  What I should have been doing, in their view, was keeping the scraps and making all the things with them. 

So I listened again and started doing that.

But do you know what?  Keeping those scraps killed my creative spirit.  A truth I realised just today.

When I think about it, I'm the type of quilter that has the design idea or pattern in mind first then I go looking for the fabric to make it happen. 

I don't get inspired by fabric. 

I get inspired by the person I'm making the quilt for ... or the cause I'm making it for, maybe even the bridge I saw on my drive home. 

The fabric is secondary to me, it's a tool. 

So what made me realise this after all this time?

Well, today I saw a plea, no that's the wrong word ... it wasn't a plea ... it was a heartfelt call to action by Lizzy House on her Instagram stories.

There are some horrendous wildfires destroying homes and taking lives in California at the moment.  They are on the other side of the world to me.  I know they're horrible, I see it on the news.  I can see the destruction, I can read the anecdotes of loss and shake my head in sympathy ... but today I truly felt the loss.

Lizzy said that in a quilting guild of 100 members - 98 of them lost their homes due to the fire ... ninety-eight.  That hit me so hard in the chest. 

I couldn't imagine the majority of my fellow guild members suddenly homeless ... could you?

There's a fabric drive on at the moment ... yardage to make pillowcases and treasured scraps to get the guild members sewing again, if only by hand.

I started digging into my scraps straight away ... pulling treasured pieces out, it felt good to be giving them away.  Yes it's a good cause and all that, but there was something else happening to me ... I was giving these scraps away ... and with this action I was unburdening myself of the expectation of doing something with them. 

This sounds weird right?

I started this as a selfless act of kindness, but it's turned into a bloody epiphany!

You put a little kindness out in the world and you get ... clarity.

I'm sending a kilogram of my scraps over to California.  The postage is a bummer, but I'm not letting it stop me.  And I'm not letting these scraps stop me from creating anymore either.

Sx