Friday, August 19, 2011

Potholders

Thursday evening was the fourth meeting of our Des Moines Chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild (DSMMQG). Our speakers were Jill and Marny of ModernQuiltRelish, who offered a super program about the elements of design, and their experiences judging the Ann Arbor (Michigan) Chapter of MQG's "Kona Solids Challenge." Through discussion, I learned more about what I might do to create a satisfactory quilt for our "Habitat" challenge, due by the September meeting. Thanks Jill and Marny!

At the end of the evening, those of us who'd made potholders, drew numbers to swap them, returning home with the same number of potholders but different ones than we'd arrived with. These are the two I took home. Oddly enough, I drew numbers for potholders that were made by the same person! Veronica. Very cute!

I swapped two potholders I made and kept a couple for myself.

This 9" square potholder was my first attempt at fabric weaving. To make this one, I used Kona solid white, and a rolie-polie (2-1/2" strips) recently won in a giveaway from Riley Blake.

It's easy to sew strips for woven fabric. Just sew 2-1/2" strips wrong sides together and then press the seam open in the center back.

I also played around with no binding (potholder above) and binding.


To make the potholders useable, I inserted The Warm Company's Insul-bright between two layers of batting. Whoever uses these potholders should be able take a hot dish from the oven, or protect a tabletop from heat.

Since I've lately become enamored with the Circle of Geese FPP block, I decided to shrink the design for two more 9" square potholders. 


What I learned through this is:

1) Next time I won't use two layers of batting. One layer of batting and one layer of Insul-Bright should be enough.
2) I prefer the appearance of a potholder with binding, but next time I'll make each corner a curve, so I don't have to mess with mitering.
3) I don't think I can bring myself to actually use such pretty little quilts!

Linda

11 comments:

  1. Great job on yours and you brought home 2 very cute ones! What a fun thing.

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  2. Curves for corners... and yes you can use these cut potholders..... why ??? so you can make more and trade....

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  3. I agree. These are very cute. Way to cute for the way I use potholders. :)

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  4. Who can't use a great potholder? But I'm with you, sometimes I cringe to use it when it's so cute! I'm really drawn to the polkadot chick one, so cute!!!
    :-}pokey

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  5. I've also experienced that feeling of "too pretty to use" when I swapped some potholders...so I flip them over & use the back side! (I've used old jeans for the back--so durable.) I've also found that using just one batting & one Insul-brite is fine, and rounded corners are much easier on things this small. Aren't potholders fun to make? Love your weaving strips.

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  6. You drew some really cute pot holders! Thanks for the tutorial on the woven strips...I'll have to try that sometime....Of course, I love your circles of geese...I might have trouble using those too, as I know how much work went into them!

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  7. Great potholders, and I love the idea of the swap. I'm going to suggest that in my guild. blessings, marlene

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  8. What a clever way to use fabric strips! I too love the idea of a pot holder swap, and will be suggesting it to my LPWC next time we meet.

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  9. I love the potholders Linda - the circle of flying geese is a very nice design.
    I have some insulbright to try out to make oven mitts and such- perhaps one day soon.
    It looks like you all had fun creating your own look.
    Regards,
    Anna

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  10. It sounds like you're really enjoying your MQG. I wouldn't have thought of weaving the fabric strips. Clever!

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  11. sweet mini quilts.
    You drew some really cute potholders.
    Thanks for the tip about the "insides" I am planning to make some potholders and was going to do the same thing but I think I will do what you did. Maybe even the curved corners. Good idea.

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