Well, I finished all but one project, the stockings. I'm ok with that. They weren't completely necessary and to be honest may be a chill project for when I come back from Christmas to tuck away for next year. I have a lot of Christmas fabric left over, I should try and get rid of the majority of it. My last big project/present was finished just hours from gifting. Thank goodness!
Reading a lot of other blogs I heard about this batting called Insul-Brite that has heat reflective properties so it's perfect for potholders, oven mits, etc. I'm having dinner with a friend tonight and figured it would be a great way for me to play with a new batting as well as some new quilting styles on such a small scale.
The best part of this project? 100% SCRAP-MADE! Yay! My scraps just recently started getting out of hand. From the baby quilts (this one and this one) and the brother's Kindle pouch (here) I had a lot of oddly shaped scraps leftover from the Moda Summerhouse line (I've decided it's my ultimate favorite) and a Kona solid in gray. This allowed me to be able to just kind of "free-form" some stuff together. Such crazy colors paired with that solid just made them pop! I LOVE these. I may need a pair.
All basted and ready to pin I realized I was kind of over-doing it on the taping to the (kitchen) floor routine. These were pretty small, the second one I didn't take as great care of and it turned out just fine. I put the Insul-Brite batting under the top (pinwheels above right) and regular good ol' Warm & Natural (my favorite) under the back (on the left) so it would be extra plush. This caused some issues on piecing which ended up making my binding a little lumpy in places, but I'm super happy overall.
I wanted to use the same half square triangle (HST) layout but in different ways. I started with the pinwheels and then just did a grid pattern. Because they were so busy on the front I wanted a really structured grid pattern around it so as not to distract but add to texture. I picked a black thread for quilting and LOVE how visible it is. So with the grid one, see that blank space where it's not quilted? That was not intentional. I literally ran out of thread, right there. But I liked the blank so I left it as is.
For the backs you can see I went crazy and WOW are they busy, haha. I probably should have used a solid for the interior. The shell pattern looks less busy. See how overly-large the cutout is on the flower quilted one? That was an accident. I much prefer the shell quilted one for sizing... but not for quilting. It was my first crack at the shells and although I think I spaced them nicely and overall it looks good, it could look better. I have some flatter tops, some leaning shells, but pretty good for a first time. The flowers I am in love with.
As pre-warned this will be my last post until after Christmas unless I have some knitting time in Virginia. Merry Christmas, everyone, and happy crafting!
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