Scrap happy – Life on the Farmlet

It has been a long time since I posted for Scrap Happy. And, yes, this is a second post for today, but I didn’t want to miss out!

Scrap Happy is a once a month post wherein we use our quilting scraps or other finds to make something new, creative, fun and useful. Most posts are made of quilting scraps; but not always!

Today I share my chicken yard roost. It was made primarily of small saplings, and a few larger limbs cut from the fence line you see in the background of my photo. Everything had become quite wild and overgrown, so Bob chopped them all down. I decided to put the trunks and limbs into my project, rather than leave it out front for the monthly large items pickup.

The whole project took about two days. I used a bit of leftover lumber for the square frame. I attached legs cut from the largest tree limb, and then screwed the cut saplings to the top for a roosting area.

It took a bit, but my chickens have come to really appreciate it on rainy days when the soil is wet and soggy.

I enjoyed this project and it kept the yard cleanup mess from becoming “junk” going to the landfill!

ScrapHappy happens each month on the 15th. The many participants are listed below, and although they don’t participate every time, it’s always fun to see what they have created from their scraps!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue , Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy,
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa , Tierney and Hannah

Thanks for visiting!

I have a lot of scraps. Scraps in drawers, scraps in baskets, scraps I really like, and some I don’t. Big ones, little ones, some minuscule too. Some are from quilting, crafting and sewing and quite a few are from old clothing; specifically Bob’s old shirts. He’s a basic plaid man for shirts.

These past few weeks I’ve seen the need to manage them all.

So as not to overwhelm myself I decided to begin on the cutting table. You know, all the stuff I didn’t want to put away lest I forget about it. No judgements now. You know it happens to all of us from time to time.

I scooted over the wastebasket and immediately tossed the scraps I don’t like. Then I sorted by type and size. I began the process of cutting to common sized block sizes. Inchies, 2.5″, 4″, 5″, but I left the strips alone because, no matter how you cut them, strips make really awesome project starters.

I have begun making inchies, which are cut to 1.5″ to allow for the 1/4 inch seams, from any bits of fabric that will allow a 1.5 cut block. Smaller that that? Saved for crumb quilting or straight to trash.

Bob’s shirts I began cutting to 2.5″ and 5″ blocks when I suddenly realized I was working too hard. Five inch blocks can be cut into 2.5 inch blocks! Larger cuts give me greater future options.

The Kaffe quarter circles will remain as they are. They can be sewn together into half circles, whole circles or appliqued as flowers or wreaths, or who can say what I’ll come up with in the future?

This is only some of my scraps, but they are labelled and being properly stored. Probably organized into that basket of Bob’s old filleted shirts! When I’ve emptied it of course.

The 15th of each month is the day Gun in Sweden and Kate in Australia, host ScrapHappy, a day for showing something made from scraps.

Though ScrapHappy is open to anyone who uses or reuses scraps to make something beautiful and/or useful, they may not post every time. Go take a look, because there is always something of interest there:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda (me),
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear, Carol,
Preeti, Edith, Debbierose