Scrap Play

Over the last month I've been trying to work through some personal stress and unhappiness. I don't want to get into details or have a self-pity party; it's still upsetting to even think about it. It makes it harder to keep trying to reach out to friends, too, as in these times I tend to withdraw and go silent.

Color always helps cheer me up, so last night I hauled out the mask-making scrap bag and started playing with pieces of fabric leftover from some that I made for myself:

I love these colors together. I also have another project I want to use them in, so I needed to play a bit with the colors while I thought about it.

Feather stitching is probably the most meditative stitching I do. For this block I used some ancient rayon embroidery thread that is too old to use for anything practical, and just allowed myself to mindlessly stitch for a while. Once I felt like I'd warmed up, I tried blanket stitch with french knots to make a row of flowers, which turned out a little lopsided but cute.

Lately I've been drawn to buttons as symbols rather than strictly embellishments. This piece is an abstract expression of how I've felt over the last couple of weeks.

Still working on this piece. I haven't been able to use my sparkling threads for weeks while I was working on Oliver's quilt, and they make me happy, so I need to get back to using them.

I don't know what I'll make out of these three pieces. I might not make them into anything. Sometimes it's just enough for me to play so I can forget about my troubles. Need more of that.