Scrap Stash and a Knit Gift

Pattern from "Knit Two Together" by Mel Clark 

I was really ambitious trying to complete knitting projects before my trip. I wanted to make at least one gift to give away to hubby's friend in Japan. I had planned for a couple more, but I've run out of time.  I haven't knitted a new project for about two years. I doubt I will ever get really proficient since I keep taking long breaks right after my the knitting improves.  I thought tackling a table runner would be easy, but it wasn't.  Lace patterns are just fussy and difficult to fix. After about six false starts, I finally finished something that probably would have taken a pro three days. But for me, it was more like two weeks.    

Euroflax Sport Weight 100% linen with mother-of-pearl beads.

Japanese gift-giving culture include fairly elaborate wrapping jobs, but I have to pack my gift in a suitcase so I doubt it would survive paper wrapping. I decided to make my own "bag" out of the stash scrap I had in the box. Incidentally, I used this same fabric for a couple of things this week. Here's the first wrap-bag...hubby thinks it looks very Japanese:

This is the first buttonhole I've made since getting my Bernina fixed.  So relieved that the memory feature worked!

This bag was made from scraps from this project:

Curtains for the laundry room.  Excuse the poor pictures. New phone camera...:-( 

I used eyelet fabric for the top, so it could gather nicer than the canvas check print below.

I made these curtains from a large scrap piece pants from this project:

The eyelet scrap came from the Frida Kahlo challenge blouse:

The original cream checked fabric was a recycled long curtain I got for next to nothing at FABMO. The eyelet was a piece I bought last Spring from Hart's Fabric. The rosettes from the original eyelet blouse were scrap pieces from another shirt. I don't know about other sewists, but I hate throwing out my scraps.  I read on another blog that we should just throw them out so it doesn't clutter our workspace...yes and no. I think even the tiny pieces can be used for stuffing or a fabric collage that could eventually be turned into a new piece of wearable art.  What do others do with their scraps?  

Happy sewing!