Discover Fabscrap

As a quilter and textile artist I have been moving toward using recycled, repurposed and sustainable fabrics in my work, so any source that offers those catches my interest immediately. That's how I discovered Fabscrap, a non-profit service that collects waste and unwanted textiles in New York and Philadelphia, mostly from the fashion industry, and recycles them by giving them away to students, artists, local designers, and crafters for reuse. All they charge is a small serve fee to cover their operating expenses.

Fortunately they also offer for sale online to the public yardage, scrap packs, yarns, trims etc. at very low prices (what is basically the service fee and shipping.) I decided to invest in a multi cotton scrap pack ($4.00) and see what I'd get. Oh, boy, was I surprised.

All of the fabrics I received are in this pic and the ones that follow. There are many swatch book squares, but also some decent size cuts. The fabrics range from flannels and linens to shirtings and wovens.

Every piece was clean, and most were pressed and edged by pinking shears. A few had some wrinkles and some thread bits, but all are in new condition.

If I had to guess I'd estimate I got about three yards of fabric total. It's the variety I think is so cool and inspiring. I tend to draw my inspiration from my materials, so the fabric is giving me all kinds of ideas.

The fact that I'm helping to keep these lovely textiles out of a landfill also makes me very happy.

Here's everything all together. It's a generous amount of 100% usable fabric.

Some of the swatch-size pieces do still have some sticky tape or bits of label fragments on them, as you see here with the flannel at the top. That's easy enough for me to remove. Also, two of the fabrics in my box probably came from finished garments, as you can tell from this olive piece at the bottom.

This other piece is double-layered, so it might be a trimmed-off pant leg. :)

If you like scraps and surprises, you simply can't beat Fabscrap. I made another order to see what the color-specific packs would be like, and I can't wait for it to arrive. When it does I'll post pics on the blog.

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Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Journal Find

This is a page from my 2010 poetry journal. My handwriting isn't the best, so I'll transcribe it: If my heart survives to tell all the secrets kept inside it will be an abalone shell in which the beauty did reside. But I think I will always be lost to the tides that rage in me . . . humbling and polishing . . . I don't write many self-portrait poems, but this one isn't too embarrassing. A bit overly dramatic, but the girl I was eleven years ago went through some tough times. I'm in a much more peaceful place today.

The Numbers

Back in March my diabetes doctor changed my medication and encouraged me to alter my diet and exercise more in order to bring down my A1C, which at the time tested out at a dismal 8.3 (normal is 5.8.) So for the next two months I dealt with the increased meds, stuck to my decidedly grim diet and added a lot more walking to my exercise regime. P.S., it's never fun to be a diabetic, but over the last couple of months I've really tried to keep a good attitude about it. Attitude isn't everything, but it helps a lot when you have to make significant changes while battling a disease like this. Yesterday I performed a home A1C test, and I'm currently at 6.5. That's pretty amazing results, even for me. If I can get it down another half point before I see the doctor in July I'd be over the moon, but I feel like I've already done great. Image credit: Image by Daniele Liberatori from Pixabay

Rayen

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