Feb 7, 2012

Potholder Therapy and Kitchen Love


What do you give a young couple about to get married in February....and you've already made them a quilt?

Little 'kitchen quilts' of course! Otherwise known as potholders, they are something we all need, all use, and new ones are always a welcomed and appreciated, shower or wedding gift! This set goes to a great-niece and her newlywed husband who picked black and red as their wedding, as well as their new kitchen, colors.

Shown in the center: a double handed oven pot mitt...... with pockets at each end to slip in your hands into,,,in this case I placed them on the under side.. ...you just loop it over the handle of the kitchen stove and you've got instant haute couture in your (their) chosen colors. I love making these and they are so easy and really spice up a kitchen with a new look in a hurry!

Then I did my favorite scrappy quilting and made two regular hanging, potholders with insulbrite on the back side for heat resistance, and lots of nice cotton padding in between, and last but not least...my own homemade fabric (and quilted!) gift card.

I made a simple little card by sewing on my little freely cut hearts, some ribbon and bead trim on one side of a pretty piece of fabric backed with a two small pieces of Timtex or Pellon interfacing....separated for a small folding 'gap' in the center of the rectangle.

Make an interior, backing piece of alternate fabric for the 'inside' section. Top it on the 'right' side of this interior section...over on the right hand side, of course.... with a small piece of sewed down notepaper (mine was my own hand crafted paper, of course ;) Stitch around your little to and from note space, it to hold it in place.

Outside of the card: fabric with the hearts backed with with two small separated sections of Timtex or Pellon interfacing, separated by a small gap between the sections.

Inside of the card: Interior fabric #2, with the sewn down half size piece of paper for your note on the right interior side.

Zig zag or surge the edges all the way around...I did mine three times using a rolled edge stitch on my surger, but regular sewing machine zigzag works, too!

Pop them all into a cute gift bag with some fluffs of tissue paper and it's all good to go! A one of kind gift made with my heart and my hands.....for theirs!

Yep, February Love has been on a roll in this house. When I'm not blogging you can trust that I'm either designing projects, creating them, or giving them away!

Nothing better than handmade, homemade, heartmade, and best of all...finished!

Let's see now...four February birthdays, one wedding , one feel better soon gift needed...ok!
Time to get back into the sewing room ;)

Scrappy Potholder tutorial


And don't forget...my little art quilt is up at auction and is needing a bid. Every $5 helps so much in funding Alzheimer's research.Let's see if we can get the charitable energy rolling again. Only three more days left in the auction~

Michele Bilyeu Quilts With Heart and Hands for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Join in my Liberated Quilting Challenge...and buy or donate a quilt, today!! We are changing the world...one little quilt at a time.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Your "potholders" are adorable Michele!

Don't tell anyone, but I'm currently the high bidder on your quilt . . . I hope I win!!

Angie said...

I love those double-handed potholders and I AM going to make me one of those 'soon'. :) Right now I need to get my hiney in gear and make two oranges houses and a baby quilt.

Anonymous said...

Very striking and what a great gift!

quiltmom anna said...

I love the doublehanded potholders- I need to double check the links because I would like to make a set of the double handed ones for a gift or two. I think they would be a fabulous gift and not take too long to make. I even have some insulated batt that I could use on them.
Thanks for sharing the tutorial.
Regards,
Anna

Michele Bilyeu said...

I'll post photos of how these were made as soon as I find the ones from other sets where I actually took photos as making them!

Scrappy quilter said...

Awesome!! I love the brilliant colors. What a wonderful gift. Hugs