Scrap Happy December

Two for the price of one this month!

You may remember that I was invited to a lunch to celebrate the 2nd birthday of my neighbours’ adopted child at rather short notice. I wanted to take a present but did not have time to go out and look for something. Rummaging through my patterns I found this one for a knitted rabbit which recommended using up odd scraps of yarn. I have no idea where the pattern came from – it seems to have come as an email but I have no idea who sent it.

As I had plenty of small balls of yarn and the remains of a bag of toy stuffing I set to work. It took far longer than I had intended or anticipated but I was rather pleased with the result.

The second project was another birthday present. This one was for my grandson, Sam, who was 18 on Wednesday. Some years ago I made each of the grandchildren a rectangular cushion and embroidered it as a postcard. It had a scrap of velvet as a stamp, the address was ‘To name, Anywhere in the World’ and the message was ‘Love from Mam-gu’. Mam-gu is Welsh for Grandma and is what they all call me. As my son and daughter-in-law were looking after three foster children at the time and I wanted to include them with my four birth grandchildren, that was seven cushions! They seem to have been a hit because although the foster children were moved on and I am no longer in contact, I spot them from time to time in my grandchildren’s bedrooms or brought with them if they are camping here. When I visited my daughter at half term Sam waved his at me and asked for another one so that is what he got. But I decided to do a different design as he is now (at least technically!) a grown up. A quick hunt through my stash brought to light an expensive black velvet skirt that was given to me to recycle because it no longer fit it’s owner, (a much larger lady than me or I would have snaffled it) and some red ‘fur’ fabric used for making teddy bears years ago. Both are soft with a lovely ‘feel’ to them. A skein of thick red embroidery thread from my box and I was ready to go.

As Sam’s sister has her birthday in early January I just have to think of something to make for her! Could be you will see that as my next Scrap Happy post! But first there are Christmas presents to finish and as my son and daughter-in-law now have another three foster children who will be with them, all being well, until they reach adulthood, Georgia’s gift will have to wait until after Christmas.

I’ve been inspired to write this (and future) ScrapHappy posts by Kate, Tall Tales from Chiconia, one of my favouruite blogs. On the fifteenth of every month lots of other folks often publish a ScrapHappy post – some fabric or yarn, some other stuff but all inspiring. For some reason ‘cut and paste’ is not working properly so I cannot put all the links here. Please look at Kate’s site and follow the links from there – it is well worth the effort! http://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com

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