Friday, February 01, 2008

Cat cushion

When you are hand sewing and you've got all those little seam corners that you clip off, what do you do with the triangles? Or the thread ends after they've been clipped close to the quilt? Or when you are making wonky letters and you get a lot of crumbs (and I mean crumbs!) after trimming? Or leftover strips of batting from the edges of a quilt? How about some practice piece of machine quilting that didn't turn out so well? Or the left-over collars, cuffs and button hole strips from re-cycled shirts?

Last year I decided to save the crumbs. I'm not sure why. I knew they were too small to ever be sewn together with something (you know fabric confetti) so maybe I was just trying to see what a year's worth of confetti looked like. Well, I got three bags full and there they sat in the closet until this week when I pulled the bags out and decided to make a cushion. I must admit it is a very lumpy cushion and not one that anyone is going to want to sit on. And granted the fluff and stuff gravitates to one side or the other. BUT... Lemi thinks this is a very comforting cushion to relax on! It is bumpy and squishy enough that it fluffs up around her and makes for a warm seat I guess. So I'm glad I saved the stuff and am making my furry friend happy.


Here is a small portion of the stuff I can collect next to my livingroom chair.






And here is more of the fluff.







And here is a cushion in progress made of an old towel sewn around three sides with an opening for the inside fluff. (I didn't even velcro it or put a zipper in etc. This cushion is going to be a "rip the seam open and add more fluff if needed" type of cushion."


And here is Lemi occupying the crumb and fluff filled cushion. If she'd get off of it for a few minutes I might even make a cover out of an old T-shirt so that I don't have to wash the whole cushion (I can see that turning into a lopsided mess!) but so far she has claimed it as her own so it doesn't have a cover yet.

So much for my innovation and sewing skills.

6 comments:

anne bebbington said...

But excellent recycling to help save the planet and I'm sure Lemi appreciates it

Lazy Gal Tonya said...

oh, that's very sweet that Lemi has such a comforting place to sleep.

meggie said...

It seems you have made Lemi one very happy cat, with that cushion!

The Quilter said...

That is so conscientious and frugal; most of us aren't that good about waste not/want not. I have started saving that triangle of fabric you cut off the corner when you make flying geese segments by laying a square on the end of a rectangle and sewing down the diagonal of the square (is that explained well?) You trim off the corners, and press the seams and you have a flying geese block. Anyway, that makes all these small triangles leftover. When I get a large pile of them, I can make something with the half-square triangle blocks. Or just give up and toss them! I'm not sure my patience would hold up. Is anyone else doing this?

Allie said...

Oh my, I have to do this! I hate throwing anything away - thanks for the great idea, my kitty thanks you too!

Quilting Journey said...

I am impressed...lumpy or not, Lemi obviously loves it! I have been saving every little bit and piece, too, and have yet to think of anything quite so clever!!