Recycling at it's best

I LOVE making new things out of some of my tired old possessions or some that are destined to Goodwill, or even the trash.  I save the smallest scraps, which confuses the majority of my friends and family, as I have a HUGE closet full of perfectly good fabric.  But you know what? I think what I like is the challenge of creating something from odds and ends of other projects.  And it satisfies my 'green' self and my frugal side as well.

I started by using this pattern,'Hanging Snowman',

 by The Wooden Bear  and went from there.  I used an Ohio State T-shirt (the honest girl in me needs to admit to you that it wasn't an old, used T shirt, although it very well could have been--LOL), and old jeans and lots of odds and ends from other projects, (I dutifully saved all the coordinating scarlet and gray scraps from another OSU project in a little baggie).  I used scrappy neutrals for the background from a very bulging bin--do they EVER go down?

 You just never know when you might need them!  I'm not above scrounging through trash cans after students leave--ask them, they know. 

And buttons..have you seen the price of buttons?  Just plain ole buttons?  Geez, I'm sure glad my Grandma saved buttons.  I love having a button jar to dip into for projects like this.

And unfortunately some of my fabric for my pieces and parts come from things that happen to be way too handy to my itchy little hands. Like a pretty fleece throw.  Just sitting there...doing nothing...competing with hundreds of quilts to be used....and dying to get into a project of mine. I just know it.

 And therefore, I just cut a little bit of it away and used the fringe for a little fringe for the top of the hat. 

Just a side note....I was machine quilting on my machine 

(it's just way too small to load on my long arm) and I could not find my machine quilting gloves. It's been a while since I've used them.  But did you know that Neutrogena Hand Cream

 works really well?  It has a bit of tackiness to it without the oily residue that won't transfer to your fabric.  I don't think I would like to use it as a hand cream, but it works great as an 'invisible glove'.  

Now I just need to hand stitch the binding to the back, add a label and another Christmas present done! This is for my daughter and son in law, who are huge Ohio State Buckeye Fans.  I made another one (not in OSU though) for my secret sister, but I forgot to take a photo.