Household Crafts – OccasionalPiece

So as I served up the bibimbap with bolgigi the other day, placing the bowl on the impossibly old placemats, I thought: it’s time for new placemats. When I went out looking, they either had newer versions of my impossibly old placemats, or versions that looked like they’d been made with fabric from France.

Hey! I have fabric from France. Like from about 20 years ago.

Yes, it is also impossibly old, but it should do. So in the late afternoon sun (important for a plot twist later on) I folded down this fabric that was made for napkins, attempting to herd it into in a size like the impossibly old placemats.

I glued down the fold, stitched it, backed it with some batting and more impossibly old fabric, turned it inside out, poked out the corners and stitched the opening closed. I went on an adventure with quilting, moving from WhatWasIThinking to ILikeThisPrettyWell.

Then as I was finishing up today, I noticed that hmmmm. The fabric is darker on one edge — or faded on the other (however you want to think about it). I guess laying out that fabric in the late afternoon sun on the first day complicated my laser-like color vision. (lol)

Four placemats finished.

And when I went to make the napkin, yep. I can really see the fade. I used this tutorial.

I have more unfaded sections to make into napkins…and some faded sections, too.

Remember this quote from a couple of posts back? I may have this etched in my brain, because it applies to this, too:

This was my 2021-22 year-long making of pillows to go on the bed, shown from January (upper left, snowflake) to November (middle bottom row, lilies). I kept thinking I needed to get December’s made. But that idea — that some things end because we are finished with them — rang in my head. I’ve made a new Christmas Quilt for the bed, and don’t know if my idea will “go” with it, plus Evergreen, EverLife has a lot going on. It probably doesn’t need a pillow. So I’m finished with this. Pillows-of-the-Month are done.

Lastly, thank you for your observations and responses on my last post, Age of Subtraction. A lot of what you wrote has reverberated out into my life, into conversations with my family, and given me a lot of think about. I appreciate your taking the time to write and be a part of this conversation.

HotMitt_7

It was time. When I last made hot mitts, it was 2013 and now, many hot pans later, I was in desperate need of new hot mitts. Scary picture of old mitts, below.

HotMitt_0

I made it really small so you wouldn’t faint.

HotMitt_1 — DON’T DOWNLOAD THIS for pattern!

So I looked up my tutorial about when I first made these oven hot mitts. I printed out the pattern at 100%, checking that picture of the ruler to make sure it matched 1″ on a real-life ruler. I taped the two parts together (shown above…again DON’T use that photo as your pattern!–refer to the tutorial), and set them aside.. Layer up the fabrics, according to the directions in that original post.

I chose my thread, using a variegated So Fine for the Amy Butler floral, and quilted the fabric layers together by just scribbling and swirling all over it. I’ve also used my walking foot and done straight lines. It really doesn’t matter what you do; just get those layers secured together.

HotMitt_5 HotMitt_6

I cut out enough for two mitts: that’s four hand-shaped pieces. Remember to reverse the pattern when cutting a pair (as shown in the top photo). Then it was make bias binding time.

making-bias-tape1 I followed the instructions, as before (old picture, above), but if you need a more detailed refresher on how to make bias tape, head here, to the Dritz website.. (Or download their PDF file here, if that link doesn’t work: dritz-tutorial-how-use-bias-tape-maker)

I now have some handy-dandy new hot mitts. Reminder: they are a little big until you wash them a couple of times. I built in that shrinkage to the pattern.

HotMitt_7a

Mitts in action. Recipe is my go-to Summer Pasta Salad, found on ElizabethCooks.com, my recipe blog (see below).

summer-pasta-salad-with-asparagus-and-tomatoes

Now I can cook in style.

The ongoing OPQuilt Summer Book Giveaway is still going on: you get a new book and I get more shelf space in my sewing room.

OPQuilt Summer 2017 Book Giveaway

Here’s the total stack of books I’m giving away. The first two titles are lined out as they are all finished, and next up is the Denyse Schmidt book. I’ll let this one run until August 3rd, and will notify the winner by email. I’m letting you know what is coming up so you can either enter all the giveaways, or just the one you want. I’m still very happy to receive your comments, though! This week’s Intentional Piecing has been given, in accordance with the strict rules of the Husband Random Number Generator, to Andrea in Florida.

4-in-art_3

The penultimate Four-in-Art reveal for 2017 is coming up on Tuesday, with the Challenge of Stained Glass. Join us all then to see the quilts our group makes.

Denyse Schmidt Book