Happy Mother's Day!

Whether you ARE a mother, or have a mother, or have had a mother,
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I decided to go 'green' for Mom's gift this year:

I recycled a NIKE paper bag to use for the gift wrap, using bits of tissue paper and fabric to cover (somewhat) the Nike symbol in the lower corner. I wrapped the handle with fabric and added wooden beads to the ends.

For her gift, I decided to make a pair of pot holders, similar to the ones I made Joyce just a couple of weeks ago.

I like making gifts for people.

I tend to think about that person during the time that I am working.

Yes, I could go out and BUY a gift in much less time, but that is much less personal.

This time, I used the Insul-Bright that I had purchased at the quilt show in Paducah last month. Even though this 'batting' is supposed to prevent the heat from reaching your hand, you STILL have to add a second layer of cotton batting on the heat side of the holder, so the Insul-Bright will not come in contact with the hottest heat. I am wondering if just using cotton batting and flannel isn't just as good (?).

I layered one piece of the Insul-Brite and one layer of cotton batting between two layers of batik fabric. I had fused a leaf cut-out onto the top layer.

Before I stitched the layers together, I decided to satin stitch around each leaf first.
Then I put the layers together and used a 3-step straight stitch to do the veins.

Next, I stitched over the original leaf outlines again; this made the satin stitching fuller and quilted the layers together.

Then, like before, I cut this 'sandwich' to the desired shape and stitched a folded bias strip around the edge. I stopped the stitching just as I reached the original, so I could fold the underlayer over to the front.

To finish that cut end, I folded over about 3/4" and pressed it before folding it back in half.

Then I pressed that 1/4" seam allowance down.



Lastly, the loop extension was pressed in half...no raw edges.



While this worked really well at eliminating raw edges, it was a bear to sew across all those thicknesses to stitch down the loop!



But the end result turned out really well.

I think I might like these even better than the first ones I made!

Shhh! Don't tell Joyce...


Happy Mother's Day, Mom! :)