Microwave Bowls

I have seen these around blog land for a couple of years now, but didn't really give them much thought, until my neighbor actually showed me one and shared with me how much they used theirs.  Then the other evening, I went to lift a glass bowl of heated liquid out of the microwave and almost dropped it because it was to hot to hold onto.

It was then I went looking for a pattern or tutorial on how to make a set.  I landed on this tutorial on Pinterest and dug into my stash to make a couple of cute bowls.  I found this chili ristras print to use in making the first two bowls.  I cut, quilted, darted and finished them in about an hour and a half.  Super easy, super cute, and super practical!

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Finished Potholder Sets

The day before yesterday, I finished the last set of the 8 holiday potholders.    I did get the hang of making them more efficiently the more I made a set, but all in all, they are pretty cute.  The best thing about all of this custom job is the customer is delighted.  Here are the pics of the sets:

And here are the individual set pictures.


This is the spring set:

This is the summer set:

This is the Easter set:

Finally, the Fourth of July set:

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Two Completes

I have two completes to show you today, one is the structure of the greenhouse and the other is another potholder set.

First up the the picture of the completed structure of the greenhouse:

Next we will be working on the floor, sterilizing the ground with a treatment, laying down landscaping cloth, and then bring in some pea gravel and stepping stones for a path down the middle. Although, I might use some narrow pallets for my middle path?  We'll see.

Next up is another holiday potholder set.  The set is for Valentine's Day.  

This leaves four sets to get completed.  I probably won't bore you with individual posts on each set, I did today because I wanted give an update on the greenhouse.

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The Winter Set

The count down is beginning, as I just finished the winter set in the series of holiday potholders.  Five  more sets to make.

Not sure if you can see the quilting without enlarging the picture, but I followed the zig-zag of the red and white print.  So far each set of potholders has different quilting.  I'm hoping I can continue to make all 9 sets different, but at least the first four have their own quilting.

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Holiday Potholder Sets

I received an custom order back at the beginning of September for a local college themed set of potholders.  One was to be an oven mitt and the other was just a simple rectangle one.  I posted about getting them done in between other projects, but in case you missed it here is a picture of them again.

The client then contacted me again, and ordered an additional 8 sets for various holidays throughout the year.  This way they can decorate the kitchen at a reasonable expense throughout the year.  Here are the first two holiday sets, that I will get off in the mail tomorrow, as Halloween month is already here, and Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

Here is the Halloween Set.  The lining, binding and back of the square potholder is spiders and their webs.  

Here is the Thanksgiving set.  The backing, lining and bias binding is a print with words of thanks.

Yes, I made the binding, only because it looks so much better than the limited colors of bias binding that can be bought in the fabric stores.  Anyone who is interested in the mitt pattern that I used, it was on the roll of Insul-Bright  that I used in the middle of the potholders.  If you click on the link, they provide the pattern for free.

Now, I still have to make Winter, Valentine's Day, Spring, Easter, Summer, and Fourth of July sets.  I will keep you updated with pictures as I get them finished.

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Small Projects Progress

Notice:  This is another long post with lots of pictures.

The wrist splints are coming off today, so I will be able to get back to some serious sewing next week.  In the mean time, I have been able to maneuver enough to get some small projects completed on my clients orders.

But, I have to first tell you that while I was working on these small projects, I was busy harvesting our Roma tomatoes from the garden.  I have run out of freezer space for the tomato puree I have been making, and the tomatoes do not ripen enough at once to do a batch of canning, so I went to drying them.  Not exactly like "sun dried" tomatoes, but good enough for saving and using this winter.   I had a few pieces that did not totally dry, so I threw them in a pot with a small amount of water, and made some three bean chili for dinner last night.  Easy peasy!

This is my second jar of the dried Romas.  I still have another batch on the vines out in the garden, but will get to those next week.

Moving on to the sewing projects:

Here is the double college team baby quilt I posted about here.  The client wanted one college team on one side and another team on the other.  In this case, one side is the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and the other side is the North Carolina Tar Heels.  (I even looked  up what a Tar Heels was, and found out that this from Wikipedia:The exact etymology of the nickname is unknown, but most folklore believe its roots come from the fact that tar, pitch, and turpentine created from the vast pine forests were some of North Carolina's most important exports early in the state's history. For a time after the Civil War, the name Tar Heel was derogatory, but it was later reappropriated by the people of North Carolina.^[1]

Because the exact history of the term is unknown, a number of legends have developed to explain it. One such legend claims it to be a nickname given during the U.S. Civil War, because of the state's importance on the Confederate side, and the fact that the troops "stuck to their ranks like they had tar on their heels".^[2] )  One should know what it is they are working on, right?

The client is delighted, I am delighted, and it is off in the mail to the mother's baby shower.

During this whole interaction with the client, and ordering the fabric for each team, one of the first fabrics picked was the wrong type of fabric, meaning it was fleece.  So, since it wasn't going to be used in this quilt, I went ahead and made a couple of baby blankets and put them on my Etsy site.  If you are interested, just click on the upper right sidebar Etsy icon, and it will take you directly to my Etsy site.

Another client wants me to make her a set of college themed potholders representing the University of Oregon Ducks.  She also wants nine more sets representing the different holidays such as Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, etc.  Originally she has just asked for the U of O set of potholders, so I have done those first and they went out in the mail today.  I will be working on the rest of the sets in a couple of weeks, as I have John Q's quilt that needs to be quilted.

I also finished one of the pillow shams that will go with John Q's quilt, and I will be working on the other one today.

I kept it simple in the binding of the outer case, opting not to do a flange or ruffle, the customer is just not that kind of a person.  The back closure is just a simple envelope type, making it easy to get the pillows in and out.

Lastly, I finished the "marble" bags for the sling shot's that my dad had made (more about that in this post), but I didn't get any pictures before mailing them off to the client.  My dad had made a couple of sling shots for his neighbor, and the neighbor wants the bags to hold the marbles.

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