My Quilty Musings: Kitchen Influence

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.