Bombazine and More

With my own 100 Day Project being all about using scraps, I settled in to make several gifts, namely Bombazine oven mitts and potholders.

A friend had gifted me with her generous selection of embroidery thread which she could no longer use, and obviously a hand-made thank you gift was necessary. I'd been wanting to try the Bombazine Mitt from Bombazine for a while, and that with a coordinating potholder seemed perfect.

The mitt came first, pieced with various scraps, enhanced with a bit of hand-stitching using some of the floss I'd been gifted, and finished with a leather 'hanger.'

Then came the mitt, 8" square-ish, with the two rounded edges I'd seen Hannah @verdigrissewing do (and copied) last year.

Then mom, who had been a recipient of the great potholder giveaway last spring, randomly asked for another set - scrappy like the first, but larger. Per her request, the new set was made 10" square, equally handy as potholders or trivets. 

Though the fronts of all these projects were straight from the scrap basket, the backs were sometimes from stash - still trying to use the smaller pieces that linger there.

Then I decided my brother might enjoy a Bombazine Mitt to use with the scrappy potholders he'd already gotten. A simple uneven grid was a fun way to quilt his mitt.

And last of this bunch, was a pair of potholders for my daughter, Rachel @snippetsofsweetness.... just because. I made them 8" like the originals, happy to have found at least a few scraps to include that I knew were her old favorites.

So I felt like a change of pace after all those, and you'll be surprised (I think) to see what I started pulling from the scrap basket next....

More Small Makes

Soooo.... there wasn't much quilting going on this last month, but small random projects - oh yeah. I've already shared about all the gift bags, the hand-stitched oven mitt (which I am really enjoying using!), the embroidered snowflake ornaments, and the Quilted Fabric Basket. But there was also a pair of cute pillowcases for my granddaughters using my favorite tutorial by The Twiddletails Blog. Thanks to my friend Sharon @redapplestitches for sharing the print fabrics with me, which I subsequently paired with Kona Petunia.

There was another hand-stitched oven mitt inspired by the workshop with Aaron Sanders Head. I stitched the back with a different stitch than the first, which I really like. The exterior fabric is Essex Homespun, just like the first, and I really like it for this particular project.

And then there were a whole bunch more stitched ornaments, though quite different from the first. There were Bitty Brush Trees....

  

  

  

  

and a pair of Snowflake Season, both patterns by Cheri @tinkerellen.

 

The designs fit in 3" wooden hoops, and were lots of fun to stitch and gift. Using beads isn't my norm but perfect for the little trees! You can see somewhere along the line, I changed from 'potted' trees to trees on a stand. For some reason, the simplicity of those stands really charmed me.

So that's it for finished projects in 2022! I have just a couple of WIPs moving into the new year with me, and a new quilt already going up on the design wall. Looking forward to what the new creative year holds for all of us!

Hand-Stitched Oven Mitt

Well, after listing all the hand-stitching projects I had going, I've been focusing on a couple in particular, and lo and behold, I have a finish! 

After taking a Hand Stitched Oven Mitt workshop with Aaron Sanders Head and Tatter late last week, I was pretty excited to keep working on my mitt. I'd made good progress in class, but still had more stitching to do (read: enjoy) before construction began.

My main fabric was EssexHomespun in Scarlet, stitched with Wonderfil #8 perle cotton. I was a bit concerned about piecing the mitt by hand, considering all those layers, but it worked wonderfully. The embroidered stars are my favorite, though it was fun to try the tortoiseshell stitch as well on the back of the mitt. Aaron said it was important to do at least some stitching on both sides of the mitt to keep the layers from shifting.

And then it was time to stitch the two halves together! I was most concerned about this part! With the exterior fabric plus a layer each of batting and Insul-Brite, it was pretty thick!

But it all worked out great! And when I turned it right-side-out, the area between the thumb and fingers turned out pretty smooth, which was another concern. The mitt is lined, and I finished it all off with a running stitch to keep the main mitt and the lining in place. All in all, this was a really fun project, and don't be surprised if one of these days, I make another.