Waste not, want not

by Christine Medcalf

nitially struggling to come up with my own take on the theme ‘Rags or Riches’, I realised that I have been following this ethos each month as my 2023 Stitchbook pieces have been worked on ‘waste’ fabrics destined for landfill! Post Covid, I visited my local SCRAP (Scrap Creative Reuse Arts Project) store and bought (for £6 I think) a colourful fabric sample book, which is proving ideal for creating Stitchbook pages.

Based in Sunnybank Mills, one of many repurposed former textile mills still at the heart of its community, SCRAP overflows with all manner of useful, obscure and irresistible bargains. If you live anywhere near Yorkshire, do visit; May 12th – May 14th the mill is hosting the Threads Textile Festival plus Sunnybank’s archive will be open, so there should be plenty to interest you.

If you are unable to visit SCRAP, similar social enterprises exist throughout the UK, all doing their bit to reduce waste. scrapstuff.co.uk sunnybankmills.co.uk reusefuluk.org www.sunnybankmills.co.uk/arts/ gallery/threads-textile-festival2023/

A little piece of weaving using silk scraps and some boucle yarn left over from a friend's project. I loved doing the weaving and would like to do more but I will have to find something more durable than a cardboard box!

Another small hessian "page". I have used sari rags, yarn spun from sari rags and green garden string to embroider with.

This is taking me out of my comfort zone and I hope will help to “loosen me up”. I am not a collector as such so just used the buttons in the first task to show my husband and my initials with ribbon used in the centre for H for Haywood.

This month, I did a simplified plan of our local playing fields where we take our dog. It has several football pitches, a cricket pitch, a children’s play area as well as football and cricket pavilions. I used black and white, and red and white cords for Peter and the dog. Also a mother and child with mixed yarn and silver.

by Janet.Haywood

Fran Flanagan