Mugs Rugs Made Into Pot Holders

    I found a cute mug rug pattern at Quilt Addicts Anonymous, link here.  The pattern is free, but you do have to put it in a cart to get the download.  

    I enjoyed making these tree blocks.  I used Christmas fabric I already had and muslin for the background, but I did buy two yards of the green fabric I used for the borders, backing and binding.  They finish at 8" before binding, so I added 1.5" borders to them to make them a little bigger for potholders.  I put two layers of cotton batting in my potholders with a layer of insul-brite in the between the cotton batting.  I like the scrappy trees, but I really like the tree where I used the Christmas light fabric on the entire tree.  That is my favorite.  I made seven of these potholders.  Three for me, three for dear daughter, and I sent one up to my sweet big brother who is always looking out for me.

I have more fabric cut to make more of these blocks for a wallhanging.  So that's what I'm doing in January, making home decor items for Christmas 2021.

Homemade Potholders and A Birthday

I was putting my Christmas decorations away the other night and I realized that I do not have any homemade Christmas potholders and if I don't have any, that means my daughter does not have any.  That made me sad.  That's a situation I had to fix.  Pulling out my stack of cute Christmas fabric, some cotton batting scraps, and insul-brite I started making potholders.

I made these with just a solid piece of fabric on the front (one of them is scrappy) and the back to show off the cute fabric.  To made a decent potholder I add three layers in between the fabric.  I use one layer of cotton batting, then  a layer of insul-brite and then another layer of cotton batting.  That makes a pretty thick sturdy potholder.  I do a simple cross hatch quilting through all layers to get it ready to bind.

This weekend I'll be piecing Christmas tree mug rugs to make more potholders.  Of course, I am sharing all of these with dear daughter.  

Here is a link to the youtube video on how I bind my potholders:  Youtube video on how to bind potholders.  

I had a birthday yesterday.  Another year older.  I made myself a rum cake to celebrate.  Dear daughter came to the house after work to have cake with me and give me fun gifts.  She did a good job with gifts this year.  So clever.  

I splurged and bought myself a quilting gift.  I bought  "Vintage Christmas Book" by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet for It's Sew Emma.  This past fall this book was very popular because everyone was making the quilt Bringing Home the Christmas Tree (a car/SUV with a tree on the roof) that is in the book.  I fell in love with that pattern after seeing it all over.  I won't be making a full size quilt from the pattern just yet.  Right now I just want to make a car block and the standing tree blocks for a wallhanging/table runner.  It's too cute.  

Blue Gingham Hanging Dishtowels

   I made some hanging dishtowels with some of the blue gingham that I used to make the kitchen curtains.  I love these.

    I have plenty of the blue gingham fabric to make a cover for my stand mixer.  I'm going to make that as soon as I get the coordinating white solid and navy solid fabric I ordered a couple of weeks ago.  I want to make the cover in the patchwork style like the one I made a couple of months ago  using 2.5" squares.  I will probably make some potholders as well.  Then I have to think of something else to make with all the leftover gingham.

   I've also been knitting some dishcloths.  I'm making a kitchen set for a niece who got married last fall.  I know it's late but I just decided the other day that I wanted to do this.  I will knit her a set of dishcloths, sew up  a couple of potholders and make a couple of hanging dish towels for her.  I wanted to show you the pot I use as a yarn bowl.  My daughter bought this strawberry pot for me about 12 years ago from someone who throws pots in Indiana while she was on vacation.  I have never used this for any plants.  I have been using it as a decoration and as a yarn bowl for years.  It's kind of fragile and I wanted to keep it nice.

The Fifth Anniversary

    I started this blog on October 17, 2014 to I can keep track of my crafting projects.  I just recently spent a few hours going back over my old posts to see if I had left anything out.  Nope, it's all there, warts and all.

Here are a few items that I recently completed that I want to show you.

   A proper turquoise ear warmer knit with my original ribbed pattern.

 

  Three new shopping bags made from three yards of home decor fabric.

 

   A couple of crocheted cotton coasters.  The top one was made using Jayda in Stitches YouTube video tutorial.  Link here.

 

    I found some extra fall kitchen towels I bought last year and lots of the black cat fabric in my stash and I made some fall hanging dishtowels and potholders for a friend.

    I made another water bottle carrier.  It's too tall but I don't care.  I was playing with resizing the pattern.

    I also made a lovely find on Amazon.  I found these fun needle threaders.  I love the flowers and the pastel colors.  These came in a pack of 50.  I haven't used any of these yet so I don't know how sturdy they are, but the wire feels like it is secure in the plastic flower.

      No update on the hexagon quilt top.  It's in a state of limbo for a while.  I have been finding all manner of small projects between sewing and knitting to take up my quilting time.  I may not start working on it again until next year.

Halloween Cat Potholders

    I was going through my stash of fabric and I decided to make some Halloween potholders for me, daughter and a friend so I could get rid of some of this pretty fabric.  I put solid black on the back and bound them with black and cream homespun fabric.  These potholders have two layers of cotton batting with a piece of Insul-Brite in the middle. 

Flower Garland and Wedding Gift

     I'm going to use up all the spool pin doilies I haven't given away and make a garland to hang in my living room for spring.  I ordered a dark green cotton thread and I'm going to crochet a chain adding flowers as I go.  I have approximately 129 spool pin doilies made and I'm going to keep crocheting a chain until I run out of green thread.

   While I'm doing this, I'm knitting yellow dishcloths and making some pretty potholders for a special niece who is getting married in the summer.  I ordered two yards of this lovely fabric to make the potholders.  My DD and I had already purchased gifts from her registry, but I decided that she needed some homemade things in her kitchen.  She is not expecting this so this will be a nice surprise for her.

    Here's the fabric for the special potholders.

    I'm still working on my hexagon quilt top, or should I say, not working on it.  It seems I'm finding all manner of different projects to do that take me away from that monster.  I'll get back to it as soon as I finish my potholder dishcloth projects.

More Quilted Potholders

I made another gift set for another friend who needs a smile.  Another friend who loves handmade gifts and is always in awe over what I make.  Potholders and knitted dishcloths.  So easy to make and a great way to use up fat quarters.

More Kitchen Accessories

    I took some time out this week to make some hanging dish towels.  I bought the brown towel to make hanging towels for my hostess on Thanksgiving.  The chicken towels will be mine.  I found the chicken towel in my stash and I love the colors in it, so I had to make some hanging towels for me. 

    These lovely potholders were made on my Harrisville 7" loom with Harrisville cotton loops for my daughter.  She told me that she loves these potholders because they fit her smaller hands better than the bigger ones I make with big squares of cotton and batting.  I made some of these potholders a few years ago for her and since she loves them so much I thought it was time I made her a few more.  I will definitely be teaching her how to make these for herself sometime in the future,   Each one only takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to make.  They are easy and fun to do.  I love picking the colors and putting crazy colors together.

    You guessed it, no progress on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.  I'm still working on row three.  I've been having too much fun finding other things to make. 

Found A Quick Way To Make My Shower Curtain Quilt

   So I'm sewing along on my tote bag projects and watching videos on the computer and I found a great way to make quilty shower curtain.  I love the Big Star quilt pattern and last year I made a quilt using the pattern.  I made the stars with 10" and 5" squares.  So easy and so much fun to make.  This is a picture of the quilt top before I sandwiched it.

   So I went stash diving yesterday to find big pieces of fabrics to cut 20" squares for my shower curtain star.  My star measures 52" x 52".  I'm going to add borders to make it bigger.  I want it to measure  at least 68 x 68".  To finish it I will add a backing fabric, do some straight line quilting, and put 12 buttonholes at the top to hang it.  Not a good picture, but it's not finished yet.  

   I finished all my tote bags.  I made four of them.  Super fun and really useful.  It was kind of hard for me to get a picture of all of them together.  Now I have some tote bags that match my bedroom curtains.  Fun stuff.

     

   I also finished my potholders that will be my hostess gift for Thanksgiving dinner.

  

    

Super Potholders To Give Away To My Favorite Daughter

   I finished four potholders for dear daughter this afternoon.  They are really thick, I used a layer of Insul-Bright and a layer of cotton batting along with the six pieces of cotton fabric that this pattern calls for.  I used the youtube video tutorial you find here.  They make nice potholders.

Not So Pretty Potholders and Pretty Ironing Board Cover

     I made some not so pretty potholders to match my blue and yellow kitchen curtains this weekend.  I used scraps of different fabrics for the first set because I thought it would be pretty, but they didn't turn out as cute as I wanted them to.  I made the round set after the square set because I thought they would turn out better.  Not.  All of these potholders are, however, very functional, since I used a layer of 100% cotton batting and a layer of Insulbrite in each one.  The binding is a tad messy on the scrappy potholders and the round ones just curled up after I applied the bias binding.  Crazy potholders.  I also had a chance to crochet a new dishcloth, using up some of the tons of white cotton yarn I accumulated for some project or another that I now be using for new dishcloths for my kitchen.

 

    I made a new cover for my new small ironing board this weekend.  This ironing board came with a very thin muslin cover and a super thin layer of batting under the cover.  The muslin started to stain after two uses.  I sometimes spray my fabric with water to get out the tough wrinkles and the water stained the light beige muslin and that's when I knew I had to re-cover it.  I made a quick cover for the ironing board and I beefed up the inside with one layer of cotton batting and one layer of Insulbrite.  I left the old cover on it and used the ironing board as my pattern (I love this trick, learned on the Internets).  I put my fabric on the floor and turned the ironing board upside down on it and cut around the board giving myself about 4 inches for side coverage and  my elastic casing.  I cut the batting and Insulbrite the exact size of the top of the ironing board with no overhang for a neater look.  I made a casing for my 1/2 inch elastic and threaded the elastic in it.  I put the new cover on the board over the old cover along with the new insulating layers and tightened the elastic, knotting it really well.  That cover is on there to stay, I can't get it off without cutting the elastic.  I love the blue and I love the thickness of it.  It's perfect.

  I  washed some of fabric for my new quilt project.  I'm ironing today.  These are the pinks and greens, the patterns are for the top and the solid pink is the backing fabric.  The white fabric that also goes on the top will be washed today.  I'll start cutting soon.

Patriotic Door Decoration Finish

I finished my red, white, and blue star.  I love it.  It will be perfect for a summer front door decoration.

Tonight I will be piecing squares for my new potholders.  I need new potholders to go with the curtains I made earlier in the summer.

Tomorrow night I will start washing the fabrics for my rosey irish chain quilt I am making for myself.  I picked a variety of Tanya Whelan rose fabrics in pink and green with a pretty white on white rose pattern fabric for the background.  I can't wait to get started.