Christmas In The Kitchen

I’ve made loads of potholders over the years but have NEVER made Christmas potholders.  How can that be?

I still had scraps from my Bah-Humbug Christmas Quilt and Pillow 

Realizing I had no Christmas themed/colored potholders, I continued to play with the smallest Triangle Ruler.

I really enjoy playing around with the designs that half square triangles can make.  

The thing about scraps for me is that they only make more scraps.  Because there aren’t quite enough scraps to make something, I always need to cut off a bit more from the yardage to finish my scrap project!  It’s still fun to ‘try’ using them up though.

I thought about gifting them to my friend who loves to cook and bake, but I couldn’t part with them.  I’ll make her some everyday ones.  I just had a thought.  Potholders wear and wear out.  Maybe I will make her a new set annually.  Oh!  Good idea, Annie!

This is the end of my Christmas sewing this year.  How fun it was to sew Christmas items at Christmas time.  I did not expect to finish any of these items by Christmas.  That’s a bonus gift to myself.  Time to get some ingredients in that bowl now!

Merry Christmas!

Halloween Hauntings

Some Halloween sewing has been happening.

In the stash was a Halloween panel that I bought because I liked “parts” of the designs.  I took a couple of years to get to it.  I don’t always know what I’m going to do with a piece of fabric when I buy it.  Since I’ve been trying to use what I have, it was time for this piece to come out into the light of day.  I have cut it apart and used some of it.

First I made a couple of Halloween potholders.  I framed them with fabric from my massive (to me) Halloween stash.  Mitered corners are not the funnest to do and I’m not sure it made much difference with this particular striped piece.

This was a small image block that I added side borders to make it postcard size. Quilted just following lines in the image.

Then I took a “section” from one of the images I wasn’t overly fond of to make another postcard.  Again, quilting is just following the image lines.



This is the original panel piece (I had already started cutting it apart).

I have yet to make the crows, the skeleton and the tree into something.  Probably potholders/hot plate mat.

Hooray!...more stash reduction!

This next postcard is a section of a Halloween fabric and a section of paper piecing that I didn’t use for the Chillingsworth Wall hangings.

This Bat postcard is my usual style for fabric postcards, raw edge applique.  He is a Quilt Doodle Designs pattern called Going Batty Mug Mat.  I shrank the pattern to fit a postcard.

This spider I have made before but it has been many years.  This pattern is a Patch Abilities, Inc. called Eeek!  The pattern is a wall hanging of 3 spiders.  The medium spider is just the right size for a postcard.

This is my version of the pattern done several years ago.

It’s time to get my postcards in the mail!  Time flies by so fast.  Now that I am officially retired, dates and what day it is means nothing.  I have to make a point of paying attention to that now.

Happy Haunting!

Hearts Runner and Potholders

I have not been sewing much lately.  This is a table runner and potholders I made a lot of years ago.
Before my days of blogging.

I dug these out of their long sleep in storage.  After all, it’s the month of hearts now.

Things that have been in storage a long time are like new again.

Scrappy Sewing

As packing to move narrowed down to getting the fabric scrap drawers and sewing machine ready, I had to to stop playing.  But just before that had to happen, I made a few new potholders.

This one came from the green scraps drawer.

This one from the pink scraps drawer.

And this fun set came from the scraps from a couple of quilts.  

Of course they had to have the black and white striped bindings for added fun.  

And now everything is packed and ready to go.  So this is it from me until I get "home".

Now I'll be reading and watching your creativity and collecting inspiration.  These things are already happening and it's driving me crazy that I can't play!

oxoxo

Scrappy Sewing Fun

Two little fabric boxes and one nail polishing mat have not satisfied my desire to sew ... right now!

BUT!

I'm in the middle of packing to move back to my home in Wisconsin!  My fabric is already packed!  Scraps are all that is available to play with.  

Of course a postcard always comes to mind first.  My sweet cousin-in-law is figuring out a way to carve out a dedicated sewing space in her home with red and teal as her color theme.  And I want to be virtually in that space with her.

So I mailed her a small bit of me to display in her new space-to-be.

I also wanted to share with her some of my vintage wooden thread spools for Decor.  They needed a little padding in their box so that they didn't rattle so much.  A quick potholder would do the trick.  Who can't use a new potholder?  I hadn't yet packed my printed Miracle Fabric pieces.  How perfect this piece of collaged recipes is.  She likes neutral colors too.

So I've managed to fractionally satisfy this desire to sew things.  But far from completely.  I've dug out more scraps.  I've been watching my sewing friends share scrappy projects on their blogs and I have the desire to make scrappy fabric too.  I need a soft cover for my sewing machine.  It would look so much nicer than the dish towel I throw over it.

I have chosen neutrals and low volume color scraps for this project.  I don't really have a lot of patience for improv sewing with scraps, but as this piece has grown, I've enjoyed working on it more.

Here is where I have paused this project.  I now needed something smaller and quicker.  You know...more instant gratification. 

So, back to sneaking in a little more sewing play time in between the packing of boxes.  It is so hard to put "everything" away then wait until it can all come back out again.   

XOXOXO

Twister Tool Twist

(This is blogger's orange?!!)

When I first got my Little Twister Tool I really "needed" to give it a try.  I did not want to sew squares together, I wanted to try it on something I already had.  I'm a very patient sort wouldn't you say? The only thing I already had was some strips sewn together, so I lined it up on one seam and cut.  And then sewed those blocks together.  I also cut the opposite "waste" blocks for another one.  I then framed them in a green, bordered them with an orange  stripe, quilted and bound them, and now I have a couple of new Fall potholders!

I'm always "what ifing" and on the lookout for how a tool can be used for other than it's intended purpose...'cause I like different.  And I so like what came from this "what if".  Especially since this little bugger cost me $10 I'm real happy to have an alternative design for it.  I've even found some inspiration while putting together this post.....ooo what if...................

Happy Twisting

Annie