Chain of Stars addition

As I said in my last post I made some modification to my Chain of Stars top. I decided to make it bigger, and also I didn't like it not having a border since the pattern went all the way out and it would've bothered my eyes after binding.
Remember the top when it looked like this?:

I love the design and wanted to make it float and stand out so I pieced some background fabrics together for a fairly wide border. I like it much better now. I was thinking to put squares in the middle of each of the borders so the square pattern can come together, but it would've been too much hassle, so I just decided against it.

It turned out this way:

It's a rainy day outside so I had to ask Fiance to hold the top up for me, pardon the fingers! 

I also made the binding @pantsfreesia-style! 

Now I'm just waiting for the backing to arrive which I ordered from Hancocks of Paducah since they had a sale going on, plus I got a 20% off coupon code in the email for Mother's day, so win-win for me! I have so many thing to do, and I really don't feel like piecing the backing for now.

I took pictures of how I did the borders without using a measuring tape, and will write up a tutorial on that in tomorrow's post.

'Til we blog again! :)

Oven mitts, and hot pads

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess! I finally had my editing software re-installed after I got an SSD drive put into my laptop (by DF) for better speed.

I whipped up a few oven mitts as presents and since I was at it I also made some for myself. I used any strings I had on hand, they were all under 2". I made up the pattern using my own hand, and after I was done I just realized the insul bright I was using has a pattern on the packaging. Oh, well! I will use that next time.

I asked the design question on twitter of which quilting method people would prefer, and most of them voted for lines, so after I made the grid one, the second one stayed with line quilting.

The method I used making them was I cut out the shape of the mitten with a generous seam allowance from insul bright, and then started to sew my strings on top, and fold and press as I went. When I was done I trimmed it to size, and quilted it, putting the flannel as backing. I've sewn it right side facing, and also stuck a little hanging tag in between, facing the inside of the mitten. Finally I machine bound it, also with leftover binding from an earlier baby quilt.

So here's the one with the grids, front and back:

And the one people liked more, the line quilted:

I totally love the binding on this one! The inside is flannel, nice and soft.

Also made this square one after a pattern of my old hot pad because I liked the fact that it had a pocket and I could just stick my hand in there quickly and it didn't require 2 hands to put on. I forgot to round the corners a little bit, but I think it will just do like this:

This is the back:

I was rocking the machine binding on this one :)

And finally I made this one out of flannel, which feels super soft. The flannels were leftovers from 2 receiving blankets I made waaaay back when.

Here's the front:

The back (a little wrinkly since I've been using it for 2 weeks):

Before you ask what's with the stitches... First of all, since it was for me, I didn't bother with bias binding, so the binding is leftover I had from my blue and white quilts. Second of all, I made and oopsie and sewed the binding on the front first, then stitched it down on the back. Yeah. But no one else will see it, so I didn't bother correcting it. I remembered it on the second one I made, and that looks fine :)

That is all for now, I also made progress on my Chain of Stars quilt, but I will blog about that in a different post.

'Til we blog again! :)