Mother's Day Crafting

I had rather grandiose Mother's Day crafting plans, but I may have left it a little too late to get started.  Ooops!  

I did manage to make these patchwork potholders/placemats complete with insulation (Insul-Brite) to make them suitable for use as oven to table pot-holders.  

I enjoyed cutting and fussy cutting into my stash of text and cute Japanese prints.  Simple patchwork piecing, so relaxing!  The potholders measure 10.5 inches x 10.5 inches and each individual square was cut at 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches. 

 

The back of the potholders feature prints by Aneela Hoey from the Sherbet Pips range and a Riley Blake Chevron fabric, both in red/white.  I have also sewn tape into the binding at the top left hand corner for the purpose of hanging the potholders.  The binding strip was cut 2.25 inches wide, and unfortunately each potholder needed just a little more than 1 strip of binding fabric.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers! 

I hope you get a chance to sit back and reflect quietly with a cup of tea,

 or better still a little time behind the sewing machine.

Enjoy Sunday!

Rita

Strings Attached

I had a nagging feeling that if I were to put last week's Malka Dubrawsky inspired String Blocks aside until the joy of wonky piecing returned, they may well disappear into the RPQ world of UFO's and never be seen again.

And so, I have instead turned my free form string blocks into three sets of potholders; the instructions of which are found in Malka Dubrawsky's book  Fresh Quilting: Fearless Color, Design, and Inspiration. 

Malka's book has step by step instructions for piecing, layering the batting (including a layer of Insul-Bright insulating material), basting, and binding. 

The free-motion spiral quilting was a challenge and a defining moment, forcing myself to at last embrace the wonk.  Free motion quilting requires practise, there is no quick tutorial, or magic sewing notion. With each of the pot holders the motion required felt less forced, the stitching line smoother, rounder ... until the next bump... and wobble (every time I took a breath!).

Although there were lots of doubts along the way I am very happy with the finished pot holders; I think they'll make great handmade Christmas presents.

I have three sisters,

not all are crafty, but they all do cook/bake.  Just sayin'.

Thank you for stopping by,
Rita