Nothing - in the best possible way

OK, you are saying to yourself - it's a photo of an empty basket, so what? This is my scrap basket. It's where I put any small leftover bits of fabric while I am working - these can range from 2 inch squares or so (smaller than that go straight to either the bin, a little dish of stuff to go to school or the tiny scrap basket, which I don't ever sort out, just use from time to time) to 5 inch strips by width of fabric (larger pieces than that will go in that blue basket you can see just to the right of the wicker basket and will get put back away with the colours once a week or so). Anyway, when this basket gets full, which happens about 3-4 times a year (it holds a lot, particularly if I squish them down firmly), I tip out all the scraps, press them as necessary and sort them by size and cut them into squares to the closest half inch. (I remove the strips first, which get filed away separately). I've no idea if this is the most efficient way to handle my scraps, but the important thing is that it gives me a sensible way to put them away if they are cut into squares. Which means, they are more likely to get used in future. Or swapped. More on that in a few days time!

Anyway - the point here being that this basket was full this morning, and is empty now - yippee!

Also pictured above is the rest of my workspace - I showed my sewing room yesterday, but I also colonise the hallway landing when I am working. When I'm not working, the ironing board is stored away, but my green cutting mat lives on the black table (I used to put it away, but frankly, it was silly as I just got it out every day and it's not really in anyone's way.) This photo shows the grand scrap sorting scheme in progress, plus the quilt on the ironing board is having the excess batting and backing trimmed away in preparation for having binding attached.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had 5 quilts in my sewing room at the binding stage. One is a small panda quilt of Alex's (for his toy panda) which actually had the binding attached but not sewn down - I did the sewing down last night. The other four actually needing binding attached, so today I trimmed all the excess away and managed to attach binding to three of them - I didn't do the fourth one yet (the one on the ironing board - this is the autumnal string quilt from the other day - the one with the apples quilted on it) as it needs a lot of binding and I just didn't want to make it all up - not after the other three. Not sure I have enough of the right fabric either - will have to have a rummage through and see what there is - I really like that quilt, so it needs something just right, not something which will make do. Now I will start sewing the binding down in the evenings instead of just doing cross-stitch - luckily, it's getting cold enough not to mind having a big quilt on your lap...



And finally, some post - a card from the black and white and one other colour (gold in this case) swap - from Joyce in Nova Scotia. And on the right, my other item for the surface embellishment challenge I mentioned the other day - these seashells are from Wil and will be really interesting to use. Especially with the embellishments already received. No idea what I will do yet, but it won't get worked on until the kids go back to school, as I want a quiet day for that project to allow for inspiration. Tomorrow I think I will have to work on the confetti postcards - I'm still not thrilled with my ideas for that one - perhaps something new will come to me tomorrow...