ORTS And Birds Nests

I spent my day yesterday finishing up on my latest projects.  Here is my Bunny Pillow all finished:

I'm so pleased with this!  The little basket was a pin that I had in my stash.  I don't know where I got it.  Maybe at a flea market in a bag of bits and pieces!

My other projects are all sewed up too.  I stuffed them last night after dinner and just have to sew the little butts shut on them.  I'll have photos of those soon!

In the meantime, my ORTS jar was full!  If you're not familiar with ORTS, it stands for "Old Raggedy Threads".  Basically, I toss my short pieces of thread into a jar rather than just throwing them away. 

I actually save all sorts of my cutoffs in my ORTS jar.  Bits of satin ribbon, silk ribbon, tiny pieces of lace and some of the scraps of sheer and fancy fabrics that are too small to do anything else with.

So what do I do with these little scraps? 

Well, this time of year, I put them out for the Robin's to use in their nests!  Using my cutting board and my rotary cutter, I chop them up into teeny, tiny pieces:

I do mean teeny, tiny!  I don't want the birds feet to get all tangled up in threads and fabrics that are too long.  I try to cut them so that everything is 1 inch or less.  It's a lot of chopping! 

I put everything back in the jar when I'm done:

And then I sprinkle it around the lawn in my backyard and I wait for the Robin's to come and take it for their nests!

In previous years, I've seen the Robin's take my little scraps.  Imagine baby birds, all soft and warm in their nests made with these tiny throw away pieces of fabrics and threads!

I think I'll use my next jarful to make some fabric sheets for my crazy quilts.

Helpful Hint:  to clean your cutting board, use a lint roller or some making tape.  That'll take those "left behind" pieces right off!