I have emerged from my blogging torpor to support Kate and Gun’s Scraphappy Day this month. I’ve mostly been reluctant to post as I’ve used up most of the space for photos on my free version of WordPress and, as I don’t really want a paid version, I have to trawl back more than ten years to delete old posts and photos before I can add new ones. Some of them deserve to be deleted but still, it’s a bit of a pain.
As usual I’ve stretched the rules of Scraphappy just a tiny bit and this project is more of a stash buster with scrappy elements. I have hundreds of fabric fat quarters left over from my quilting days and I’m always looking for something to do with them. I saw a pattern for notebook covers, found some reasonably priced notebooks, stocked up on some interfacing and off I went in an obsessive manner as is my wont.
Then, horror of horrors, I realised that a fat quarter wasn’t quite fat enough to make the size of cover I needed and this is where the scraps come in. I slice through the middle of the FQ, rummage through my scraps for a strip big enough to fatten the quarter to the required size and join the three pieces together. The middle section is covered by the ‘spine’ fabric (also rummaged for in the scrap bin) so it doesn’t matter whether it coordinates with the main fabric or not.
Where did I put the iron?
As I didn’t have my act together enough to do a Christmas market, they will end up in lots of Christmas stockings this year and I’ll put the rest in my online shop and I’ll have the stock ready if I do a market next year.
Some cork fabric makes a good spine
In the meantime, I must get on with making my daughter’s boyfriend a shirt from Liberty tana lawn which will be his Christmas present. I am keeping it a secret mostly because he is very fussy and won’t wear it unless it’s nigh on perfect so, if it’s not, he’ll never know I tried and failed and will get a pair of socks instead.
This one is going in daughter’s stocking.
These covers can be removed when the notebook is full and a new notebook slotted in. It’s a great PDF pattern from Diane at Spencer Ogg who makes mostly PDF bag patterns which are also excellent.
I’ve just remembered that Mr. Tialys has made an excellent item out of scraps of wood and leather and I will feature that in the January Scraphappy Day.
I’m off on Friday for the weekend for a family visit so, if I don’t respond to comments or comment on others’ projects for a while, please forgive me and if I don’t get round to doing a pre-Christmas blog (which is all about knitting so I know you’ll try to hold on to your excitement) please forgive me for that also. So, just in case, I wish you all a very happy Christmas/Holidays and a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year.
Scraphappy Day is organised by Kate & Gun for anybody who wants to make new things from scraps of any kind – doesn’t have to be fabric or yarn. Here’s a list of participants – both regular and occasional – if you want to have a look at the sort of things you can do with scraps.
Contact Kate or Gun (first names on the list) if you want to join in.
Tialys 
#1 by claire93 on December 15, 2023 - 14:17
Ooh these are lovely!
#2 by Quimper Hitty on December 15, 2023 - 15:03
That’s a generous gift to the picky boyfriend. If he is that particular, hopefully he will appreciate the quality and the work.
#3 by onesmallstitch on December 15, 2023 - 18:53
the notebook covers are a great idea – I might try to remember it for next year . Yours are lovely. That fussy boyfriend doesn’t know how lucky he is. I too am nearing the end of my “free” wordpress and not looking forward to having to deal with it.
#4 by katechiconi on December 15, 2023 - 22:27
Those are really very gorgeous and official-looking, and anyone who gets one will be delighted. Love what you did with the chicken fabric! I think a lot of us are in a similar situation with the storage capacity: I’m up to 2.8 of my 3.0 allowance so the annoying deletion process is almost upon me. I don’t want to upgrade because my theme is no longer available, and after all this time I don’t want to change it.
#5 by Pat K on December 16, 2023 - 11:05
A very happy Christmas Lynn to you and the family ! 🎄🎅🏻🎶😘
#6 by myquiltprojects on December 16, 2023 - 13:00
What a clever use of scraps!!
#7 by Lindashee on December 16, 2023 - 13:01
They look beautiful!! I agree the space issue is annoying but what I found quite sad when I was considering a paid wordpress is how expensive the tier I wanted compared to what you got for it !! May as well carry on free use. Good luck with the cleaning
#8 by rutigt on December 18, 2023 - 09:51
I love this idea!
#9 by nanacathy2 on December 20, 2023 - 14:59
Re the photo issue..I have the same problem, then I realised I could up,aid them straight from my computer, no need to put them in the library. I love your notebooks, your daughters boy friend needs updating..cheeky so and so.
#10 by tialys on January 14, 2024 - 13:04
Can you share how you did this Cathy. Looks like quite a few of us haven’t found out how to do this yet.
#11 by nanacathy2 on January 14, 2024 - 13:14
Gosh . Me giving advice well I never. Whilst writing your post you see there’s a +symbol on the right side of the blank document.Click on that, then on the word Image followed by Upload. That then enables you to go to your computer library of photos and choose the picture you want. It doesn’t go in your media library.
#12 by tialys on January 14, 2024 - 18:53
Thanks Cathy. I’ve stubbornly been sticking to the old classic editor as I much prefer it but it looks as though I’m going to have to move over to the block editor if I want to bypass the media library.
#13 by cedar51 on January 3, 2024 - 06:52
interesting about WordPress – I deleted all of mine and I still can’t post pictures – but I did find at some point I could link in a comment from Flickr – but it’s not easy