PQ 13.4 - Mining for Diamonds

This week's challenge presented so many possibilities, so many ideas!   

A few year ago, I made a Lemoyne Star baby quilt out of part of a layer cake, and it really turned out nice.  But the more I thought about it, I realized that I had completed that one as a Project Quilting Challenge! (PQ 11.6 - Vibrant and Vivacious).  So I nixed that idea.  I didn't want to do the same thing twice! And besides, I have a big quilt in progress on my design wall right now.  All the blocks are in just the right places, and if I took them down to put up a different quilt, they'd get all mixed up, even if I labeled them.  Ask me how I know....

 

I considered making a mug rug, like this one that I made from a Kimberbell embroidery file.  But mug rugs seem kind of overdone, (especially by me ;->) and I was in the mood to do something different.

As I was mulling over ideas and digging through my stash, I came across a small piece of harlequin fabric that I had printed using a fabric sheet and my printer.  As an aside, I don't know about you, but I am not very fond of the fabric sheets that are sold for use in a home printer.  The ones that I have tried all seem to be very stiff.  

At the time that I printed the harlequin fabric, I had been playing around with ideas for a guild challenge for a Mardi Gras themed wall hanging.  I didn't have the time to go searching local quilt shops or order online and wait for delivery, so I bit the bullet and tried the printable fabric sheets.  As it turned out, the fabric ultimately didn't make the cut (pun intended) for the wall hanging.   I hate to waste things, so I put it in my 'someday I'll figure out what to do with it' drawer.  It had been languishing in that drawer for several years.  Since the harlequin pattern is made up of diamonds, I thought that this was the perfect time to use it.

Still going with the Mardi Gras theme (I mean, what else can you do with a fabric that is green, gold and purple diamonds?),  I decided that a mini banner to string across the fireplace would be apropos.  I cut out the letters spelling "Mardi Gras!" from the fabric sheet, then cut out green, gold and purple felt rectangles and sewed them on top of each other to make little panels.   I thought that using pinking shears for the gold would add an interesting detail to the panels.  Maybe it does, but cutting the soft, flexible felt with the pinking shears that I have was a pain in the tuchus.  Next time, I will stabilize the felt before attempting it! 

I used fusible applique and for the letters and carefully ironed each letter onto a set of rectangles. Note the word 'carefully'... on my first attempt, the iron was too hot and I almost fused the felt to the iron!  

Then I strung the little panels together on a length of purple yarn and hung it over the fireplace. 

To tell you the truth, I am not thrilled with the outcome.  The diamonds in the harlequin fabric are a little too big and the letters lose definition from a distance. I may take a black marker and go over the edges of the letters to make them stand out better, but it is finished for now. 

 

The last character is an exclamation point. 
 I used it to balance the two sides of the banner.

Close up, you can see the diamonds,
and the letters more clearly.

  

 

Kitchen Influence - PQ 13.3

 After the sleepless nights that the previous Project Quilting challenge gave me, I was relieved to see this week's challenge! I immediately decided to make a potholder.  Easy, quick, and functional!  The only decision that needed to be made was what pattern I would use and what shape it would be! Square? Round? And I have a really cute pattern for an owl shaped potholder, so that was a definite option.  

Square potholders are more traditional, but those corners tend to get dipped into or dragged through the food, which means that they need to be washed often, so they wear out sooner.  Round potholders are my definite favorite for exactly that reason - no corners!

To be honest, I have made square potholders for several of the challenges because the topic or the pattern idea lent themselves to squares.  For example, for PQ 13.1, I used up some leftover half square triangles.  They wouldn't make a good circle without a whole lot of finagling, so square it was.  But I really do prefer the round ones.  

So I started down the potholder path, only to get distracted the next day when I had lunch with a friend who does a lot of crochet, but doesn't quilt.  Of course, we started talking about the various projects that we're working on.  I told her about the planned potholder, and she asked me if I had ever made any bowl shaped potholders.  I quickly realized that she meant bowl cozies. I confessed that I knew what she meant, but I've never made any.  

When I got home, I googled 'Bowl Cozy pattern' and came up with half a dozen hits right away.  I really didn't see a lot of difference between the ones that are for sale and the ones that are free.  Free is always good, so I chose a link and clicked.  

I can't believe how simple Bowl Cozies are to make, and how cute they are!  The pattern that I chose uses 2 10-inch fabric squares and 2 10-inch squares of batting and makes a cozy that fits a cereal bowl.   I found a couple of leftover squares from a layer cake and had one made in less than an hour.

All cotton batting, fabric and thread is preferred, especially if you plan to use them in the microwave.  I think that the batting that I have is all cotton, but to be safe, I'm not planning to use mine in the microwave.  I've heard too many stories of flaming potato bags...

The hardest thing that I had to do for this challenge was to get a picture of my new bowl cozy!  It's kind of hard to get a good angle, so I tried several things.  

bowl cozy with bowl

empty bowl cozy, top view

side view, showing outside fabric

I think that I am going to have to make a few more.  I just saw my daughter walking by, with a bowl of soup in my new bowl cozy....