Bookmarks are a great way to use up scraps of “too pretty to use in a string quilt” fabrics. At our guild’s spring picnic, held at my house, I won a game of Left, Right, Center. Many of my stack of fat quarters were nothing to write home about, but one piece of oriental fabric was so pretty I cut it all up into 2.5 inch strips, rather than stick it in a bin with the other reds. Cut the strips about 8 inches long and do the same for a piece of interfacing and a coordinated backing fabric. Cut all 4 sides with pinking shears or a pinking rotary cutter, add a bit of ribbon with a V cut out of the ends and sew around the edges about a 1/4 inch inside. Pretty and practical.  

I also made some pillows (haven’t gotten the forms yet) from lobster placemats I picked up at Mardens. I zigzag stitched around the outside edge after I trimmed them so the looser weave fabric didn’t unravel and added thin inner borders. A wide red border and a dress shirt back finished it up. Pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.