A scurry of squirrels

I had big plans for the weekend to get back to my list of projects. I was going to load the green quilt for quilting and cut out the very last of the veterans quilt kits. But before I could do either of those things I had to clean off the cutting table.

Squirrel!
The first thing I picked up was these scraps of fabrics from Anne's quilt. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt that she left it behind by accident because she LOVES this fabric. I really wanted to just toss it because I don't keep much in the way of commercial fabric in my stash. But then I got an idea from the crochet YouTubers that I follow. They are big into drawstring project bags which makes a lot of sense. Crocherters and knitters travel with their projects more than us quilters do so drawstring bags are essential. I thought that maybe I could make a quick drawstring bag for Ann with her Spam fabric.

And so I did. The cording is Craft Cord from Hobby Lobby. I had bought some because I was thinking of project bags for my travel crochet. FWIW, this bulky weight craft cord is really nice and also inexpensive. 

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I have a bin of "unique" fabrics in my fabric closet. Some are special because of the print, some are special because they are heavier weight and some just don't have a logical pairing with any other fabrics that I have in my stash. I eliminated a good bit of these fabrics when I used them to make walker caddies in May.

Squirrel!
​In that bin I found a panel of this fabrics that Anne gave me right after it came out.

There was enough for 2 project bags. The big one is big enough for my loom knitting projects.

Squirrel!
Also in the bin are these 2 fabrics that are also going to become project bags. The batik one is a heavier African fabric that I bought about 18 years ago when I was working in England. I've had both of these fabrics for more than 10 years.

Squirrel!
​But also in the bin were a stack of these fabrics. I expect that I bought them in England too. It's a pack of pieces with none of them bigger than 14" on any side. They are clearly a scrap bundle. They are from a South African company. The fabrics are VERY stiff and I have no idea what I intended when I bought them. But I started thinking about what I might do with them.

The stiffness of the fabric makes them ideal for some sort of storage item. Well, why not a little zipper pouch for loom knitting, sewing or crochet tools? I used this tutorial and had one sewed up in no time. Is that not he cutest thing?  I'll use this one for my loom knitting tools. 

​Let's make more, I thought! I have a huge stash of zippers and it's time to use more of those too.

So very cute. Mom was here when I was working on a couple and we figured that the sewing of each pouch takes less than 10 minutes once it's cut out. Cutting each one probably took about 2 minutes. Zipper colors are based on what I have in the stash.

I know that because I cut out ALL of that fabric into pouch kits. These will be really cute gifts. For Christmas I could fill them with candy. They would make great little travel medicine/vitamin packs.

I'll get back to my original plans in a day or so but for now I'm having fun using up some fabric making bags and pouches. I'm so happy to be using some of these "save for something special" fabrics.