Years ago I acquired a set of sweetie jars through someone in the quilting group I belonged to. They were the large size jars that old fashioned sweet shops kept filled with sweets that were sold loose. I used them to keep little off-cuts of fabric which I could dip into, especially for my journal quilts. Like many quilters I stopped throwing anything away in case it came in handy but I have to say there comes a point where this is not a useful thing to do! The jars took up most of a shelf in a bookcase. but at least it meant the cats could not get at the scraps. Now the time has come to get rid of them.
Rather than just throw them away I have given them (jars and all) to a small local primary school. The children are making collages from them. Here are some examples of their pictures.
They have made boat pictures because we live by the sea.
As you can see, the pictures combine work on paper with the fabric scraps.
Of course, I also still have a lot of fabric pieces that are bigger, including fat quarters and various larger pieces. Some of them are in this photo.
I feel these would be better used by older people so I have not yet decided who to offer them to. We live so far from everywhere that even the nearest Project Linus coordinator is based in Devon. I gave the local college a lot of things a couple of years ago but they do not teach textiles. I had my fingers burnt somewhat when I offered things to a local group and a bit of me thinks that I will still use them although that is probably unrealistic. So for now I am living with bookcases that are becoming emptier. I believe that we have to treat downsizing like mourning and take it slowly but I am also conscious that I could suddenly find myself in a situation that means someone else will have to do the clearing out so this is an attempt to pre-empt that.
