Wednesday, August 24, 2011

a bit about potholders

One of my UFO's on my Finish It Up Already! list was a stack of five orphan blocks.  I decided to make them into potholders, and the first one was finished and gifted in May.


It has a hand pocket on back, and binding that I hand stitched down.
About a week ago, the other four became potholders, too.


Three are without binding and back pockets, because I'm lazy like that  :)
I used a tutorial for machine binding from A Girl In Paradise for one, and loved it! 

Each potholder has insulbright & warm and natural batting between its top and back, and the extra thickness was a bit tricky to squish through my machine.

I quilted each one differently, which {unintentionally} made this a mini study in the best way to quilt extra-puffy potholders  :)   {can you see the quilting patterns in the picture?} 

here is what I learned in a nutshell:
quilt in evenly spaced, but not dense, lines.  too dense = too stiff to bend in your hand while taking your blueberry pie out of the oven.  uneven density = a twisted & warped potholder, still a bit tricky for carrying that steaming blueberry pie.

My boys and I picked blueberries today, and have already eaten most of them, too      
Looks like we are going to have to head back to the farm if there is going to be any pie to carry around with the new potholders  :)

One more WIP crossed off the list, and frankly I'm having a hard time facing my WIP pile right now.  I'm just not inspired to work on any of those old projects at the moment, so I haven't been sewing for a few days.  Do you ever have a hard time getting a sense of direction back after you finish a project? 

1 comment:

Al said...

I totally do. I've got a stack of projects on my sewing desk right now.
I'm in a 'starting' mood right now..not 'finishing'