When Life Hands You Scraps, Make Rainbows!

While decorating my new studio I had a burst of inspiration…

I’ll admit it.  I hate throwing away scraps of quilting fabric.  The way I see it, many’s the fun thing that can be made with scraps! The following decorating story’s just an example.

Sometime back I decided to try to use a monochromatic decorating scheme with white/off white to focus on my colorful collections. The collections are inspiration- my thread, yarn, bead, and fabric stashes.  See, if they’re visible and neatly organized they can trigger creative juices. So when I found myself with this wall of windows in the new studio space, I thought, what to do? My hubby D and I went to IKEA to sort out a few storage issues I was having.  We decided to ditch the collection of plastic roll around drawers I had used for years and add to the Expedit shelves previously purchased at Ikea.  We added two single cubes shelf units, one tall single shelf, laid it on it’s side, then placed all three under the expanse of windows and voila, it’s a window seat!  🙂 Our two little dogs like being close by when I’m busy creating so this was perfect! After scouring the internet I found an excellent upholstered cushion tutorial on one of my favorite blogs, Melody Johnson’s, “FiberMania.”

How scraps become piping…

Then I purchased duck fabric, oodles of cotton cording, a spool of zippers, and became focused on making fun, scrappy, colorful piping to go in the cushions.

Here’s a closer look at the process.  I organized the scraps in gradient fashion, began placing them over the cord, over-lapping the previous scrap making sure the edges were enough to create a seam for the piping once they were trimmed.  Here’s another pic of the color shift.

Making rainbows

Then once the piping was complete, I trimmed the points off to include a healthy 1/2” seam allowance and sewed the cushions together.  Melody’s instructions helped make the cushions full and I think quite fabulous!

A close up of the finished project!

Now to get some Scotch Gard sprayed on those cushions before little furry paws do some decorating of their own…

My Completed Cushions

Just wondering, what do you do when life hands you scraps?