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!

Pink and Green Heart

My final heart shaped door pillow for St. Patrick's Day:

And here are close up photos of my embroidery:

All of these seam treatments, including the Feather Stitch are worked with my waste canvas technique.

I spent yesterday afternoon sewing all of these up.  They're all finished now so I'll post photos of them as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share my ORTS Jar with you:

ORTS stands for "old raggedy threads".  I use to save my bits of threads, ribbons, lace and scraps of sheer thin fabrics in a jar years ago.  Come Spring, I would chop them up teeny tiny and sprinkle them in my garden for the Robins to use in their nests.  I don't know why I stopped doing that but with everyone sharing their ORTS jars on their blogs, I thought I'd start doing it again.  With as much stitching as I do, I should have plenty of little bits by Spring for the birdies to use when it's time for their babies to come!

You can read more about ORTs Jars on Connie Eyberg's Blog.

And if you would like a pretty label for your ORTs Jar, visit my sweet friend, Pat Winter!