Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Purple Mountain Majesties

The January scrapbusting continues! While looking through my fabric bins, I quickly came to the conclusion that the bulkiest yardages in there are fleece scraps. When my mom was cleaning out all the fabric in my old room at home in SF a couple years ago, she insisted that I take all of the bags of fleece. It's only right, of course, considering that a lot of it was from my early plushie projects. Unfortunately, fleece take up so much space! If I'm going to be efficient about stashbusting, using those pieces needs to take first priority.

The worst part was that so much of it was tiny scraps (less than four square inches...I don't know why I saved such tiny pieces). If I was to be perfectly honest with myself, I would have to admit that they will never be used on an actual project. I mean, I guess I could have cut eyes out of them, but will I ever really need hundreds of stuffed animal eyes in different colors? The answer is a resounding no, of course, so I decided to turn them all into stuffing. The only question was, what would they be stuffing for?

In case you didn't guess from the title of this post...
As the Crebain from Dunland would see it. 

I had this pillow hanging out in my "Crafts to Make" pin board as well, so I went with this large-ish piece of lavender fleece that was a remnant from blanket-making...it's not a color that I would ever use for a stuffed animal or food item, so I felt okay turning into some majestic purple mountains.

"I want to see mountains again, mountains Gandalf!"


See how lumpy it is? But at least my seams lined up?
I didn't bother following the actual tutorial/pattern, due to the odd shape of my fleece pieces. I freehanded (freescissored?) the mountain shape and then cut snow pieces until they looked about right. I also made the corners boxier so that it would sit up properly, then stuffed it with all my scraps. It makes for a lumpier, heavier pillow, but at least it's sturdy and sits nicely? Anyway, the more important result: there's now space in the bin for a few more sheets that were formerly living in plastic bags! 


You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-Dum...the Nameless Terror, Durin's Bane!
Okay, okay, so Walnut's not exactly made of shadow and flame, but he did look pretty grumpy about being woken up from his nap just to take a picture with some dumb mountain. 
You shall not pass. 
One last, slightly less forbidding picture. 

24 comments:

  1. I love these! I had pinned that idea as well. And it gives Walnut the epic background he deserves.

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  2. Precious. You need an Etsy shop for this and giant squids :)

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  3. Looks amazingly good. You make the nicest things out of fleece. Pretty sure grumpy monster Walnut is my favorite picture!

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  4. Great use of scraps!

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  5. That is the PERFECT use of fleece scraps! (Fleece really does take up a lot of space!) And if you ever decide you have something you need the scrap for, you still have them, hehe.

    aww, man. I gotta sign my name now - no more name/url choice. =(

    ~ Brooke

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    1. Isn't it ridiculous how much space fleece takes up? And yes, I could theoretically cut it open, though I doubt I'll ever need so many eyes ;)

      I had to turn off that option because of spammers...the Stashbusting Sewalong attracted more attention than I wanted!

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  6. This post made me smile! (like most of yours do....) The picture of kitty looking oh so forbidding next to the mountains is preciousssssss. (hah.) been loving all the LotR!

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  7. I love your descriptions. "You shall not pass," indeed. And while there's no room for lumpy mountains in our house, nor is there plushy fleece, there are scraps that really want to be turned into stuffing, so...

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  8. What better way of using scraps than to use them for stuffing. Great idea!

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  9. hahaha. love walnut's "you shall not pass" face!

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    1. It's less of a deliberate "you shall not pass" face than it is a "I just woke up" face! ;)

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  10. Ha ha! That will be great for pictures with the cats! You could make a whole array of stuffed props for cat pictures.

    I put up my first January Stashbusting post this morning! And I've been sewing more!

    http://madebytrisha.blogspot.com/2013/01/bloomers-tank-top-and-undies-oh-my.html

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  11. Super adorable! I agree, fleece takes up so much space, but this was a fabulous project to use up those lavender pieces!

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  12. So. Super. Epic. I need mountain pillows in my life STAT! Walnut is totes looking like he is ready to kick some interloping orc butt!

    And on a side note, my favourite leggings company has just released a series of licensed LoTR swimsuits and leggings. I'll be getting the Gondor map ones next pay... If you want to check them out they're here: http://blackmilkclothing.com/collections/latest.

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    1. Thanks for the link! They're a little pricey for me, so I'll pass ;)

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  13. Wow you are really making it through some tough scraps, great idea to use
    it as stuffing!

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  14. First, I LOVE your majestic mountains. Second, I LOVE that you have a cute little mameshiba on your bookshelf! I have a little yellow chickpea on my bookshelf. :)

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    1. Mameshiba is the best! I always giggle when I eat legumes of any kind.

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  15. Ahh, your cat is Durin's Bane! ...And...you sewed your stashbusting fleece into the Misty Mountains! That is, I think, the best way to start a yearlong sewalong. :)

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  16. Love it! I immediately thought of the Misty Mountains when I saw the picture. I have some fleece scraps, maybe I'll make a mountain of it for my kids to play with.

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    1. Hahaha so glad that the Misty Mountains came across! And yes, I would've loved a mountain "playset" like this when I was a kid!

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  17. Ok, so I'll admit that I hadn't known about your blog until everyone started doing your stashbusting challenge... but I have to follow your blog now because of this post. All those Lord of the Rings references. I can't resist!

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    1. Thanks for following me! And if you love the LOTR references, check out all my posts tagged "LOTR" in the sidebar...I've got a lot of Tolkien nerdery going on!

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  18. I love the idea of using scraps for stuffing and have a bag I put all the little pieces in for this purpose. Of course, I haven't made anything that requires stuffing yet. Your mountains look amazing! As always though, not quite as amazing as Walnut. I have a serious crush on your cat.

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