(The threads that hang off the edge of fabrics after they've been washed, dyed, rinsed, soaked, washed again... well, you get the idea. Yes, I actually save this stuff... the birds love it for their nests and as often as not, some of it will end up in my quilts, too.)
Cheapest Alter-able Tool Ever:
(A wallpaper seam roller with sticky-backed fun foam shapes attached to it to create a continuous roller stamp. The plastic rollers are about a buck in the hardware store and the heavy wooden-handled ones, which are my favorite, cost about 6.00 but they last for years. The sticky-backed fun foam shapes can be bought in craft stores by the bucket, in the kid's departments. Each bucket is about four dollars. Use the shapes as-is or cut them up to alter them. My favorite way to "ink" them is to squirt paint/reinker/dye/textile paint/dye-na-flow/etc into a small polyester sponge- the yellow ones they sell in the grout or automotive departments that don't get stiff when they dry- work it in a little with a craft stick to even out the pigment and then roll the stamp roller onto the sponge. It's just like using an ink pad- which also works, btw.)
Over-Flowing Stamp Drawers
(This one contains as many of my favorite tribal stamps as it can hold. I've been carving stamps for years... can you tell I'm a little obsessed with it? These work great on fabric or paper.)
A Size 90 Topstitch Needle
(With ANY thread.)
Rain
(After months of drought.)
4 comments:
I don't save my thread schmutz. It comes out so knotted up and tightly wound. Yours actually looks civilized. And I'd like to come over and steal, um, I mean borrow, some of your great stamps, please!
Me too! Me too! -- About the thread. I have a pile of it. You're going to get paranoid if I keep agreeing with you. :)
I never thought of recycling the thread shumutz to the birds- I always just threw it away. Great idea! :)
Do you just put your threads out in the yard? And they get scooped up? Do you limit the birds' threads to natural fibers? This idea could lead to some fun art! ...photographing the nests ...
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