Hot Pads

In my last post, I promised pictures of the hot pads of which I sewed the faces. Mommy sewed the binding on and quilted them, and I took pictures of them once it was finally sunny. :-) These hot pads were definitely needed, as I was asked to hurry up and take the pictures so we could use them.

This was the first one. I thought I cut the squares exactly, but obviously not because the squares are not exactly perfect. I even sewed with the quarter-inch foot! When I was planning this out, I knew I wanted the purple fabric to be my main fabric. So, I did that one diagonally. Then as I was "plugging the other ones in," I realized there were just as many purple squares as there were of every other fabric! I don't know why I didn't think of that before! So I just had Mommy use the purple fabric for the binding and the back since it is just one piece.

This one is so not my style, but ironically, I still like it. I was matching up fabrics, and finally decided on a slightly-organized hodge podge of bold fabrics. Mommy's quilting plays up the spontaneity of this hot pad.

This hot pad was totally experimental . I didn't really think it would work. I started by drawing a square the size I wanted the hot pad to be. Then I used a ruler (of course :-)) to draw several triangles from the one bottom corner to somewhere on one (or two as in blue's case) of the sides opposite that one corner. Then I cut them out and numbered them so I could do them in rainbow order and remember which "triangle" went where. Following that, I pinned each triangle to its corresponding fabric and added a half inch all the way around for seam allowances. Mommy's clear rotary cutting ruler was extremely helpful with that. Then I cut them out and sewed them together. The finished shape was not exactly what I intended it to be as it is not exactly a square, but nevertheless I love it. 

 These hot pads will be used to take lots of yummy things out of the oven for years to come.

Two Bags In A Forty-Eight Hour Span

On Friday night (the 4th) I was looking through this pattern book and found a bag I wanted to make. Well, more like a purse or an "I'm going somewhere for a day and I want take a few things along" bag. I had gotten a yard of this fabric for Christmas from my mom and dad. I decided to make this bag from that fabric.  Anyway, on Friday night after the youngins went to bed, I traced the pattern pieces from the library book to paper, and then onto the fabric. Then I cut out the pieces, cleaned up (because our sewing room is our kitchen), and promptly went to bed. Because it was like 10:00.

I worked on the bag all Saturday morning. As soon as I finished it, Daddy took us outside on our frozen river and taught us how to skate. Or tried to anyway. We kids had only ever been ice skating once, and that was several years ago. We fell down a lot!!!! But Daddy only fell down once. When he was taking these pictures he took a step backwards not realizing the ice was uneven there. His legs flew out from under him and he fell backwards, but thankfully the camera was not broken (nor was he).

Daddy is an absolute professional!! He can skate very fast and then just stop at the flick of a wrist, he can skate backwards, and he can even skate while holding my 2-year-old sister Corinna and shoveling the snow off the ice. Wow!

Well, the sun was setting, so we came in. It wasn't quite supper time yet, so I decided to make another bag from the pattern book. But I had to find some fabric. I didn't have a yard of cotton, but I did have a yard of corduroy that I had originally bought to make a skirt with, but couldn't find a coordinating fabric in time for it to be used for something else. :-)

The pattern called for one yard of 44" non-directional cotton, but I made it work with 42" corduroy (which is obviously directional because of the raised lines). I had to do some refiguring, but I eventually got it cut out. After supper, I started sewing the bag together. I got it almost all done that night. The next morning (Sunday), I finished the bag, and then we went ice skating. I don't think we fell quite as much that time. I'd like to think that anyway. Around noon, we came in to have lunch and get ready for church.(We have church in the afternoon.) My brother wasn't feeling very good, so I stayed home with him and Corinna. By now I was in a sewing mood, so Mommy suggested I sew some faces for hot pads. By the time they got home, I had sewed three. I will get pictures for these later, after Mommy sews the binding on.