Scrap Happy

My day job keeps me busy; my imagination keeps me sane! So today I wrote on a blue post-it-note "weave scraps in basket & make pot holders, placemats, etc." I was excited to try this idea that was festering in my head. After I got home from work and walked the doggie, this is what I accomplished.

This bowl of scraps sits by my sewing machine and I just keep adding to it with each project. I randomly pulled scraps out of the basket and did an over/under weave.

I then did some trimming to get rid of the uneven ends.

Next I got out the spray adhesive and lightly sprayed a cotton backing. (I think the adhesive was unnecessary and I only used it because I have it!!)

Next I ironed the weave to the backing. (This is not really a backing; it's more of a stabilizing item since the strips are loose at this point. The ironing would probably have not been necessary if I wasn't lazy at the beginning and had ironed the strips before I started!)

I then took the piece to the sewing machine and used a decorative stitch to stitch the strips together.

Since I was experimenting, I decided that a potholder would be the perfect size to work with. (I'm totally aware of the bad grammar in this sentence!!)

Once the decorative stitches were added I trimmed the piece to 9" x 9". I also cut a 9" x 9" piece of the fire retardant batting. I added both of these to a scrap piece of backing material. At this point, I did not cut the backing to the same size. Instead I laid the woven piece along with the batting on top of the backing and basted the three pieces together a little less than 1/4" from the edge. Once it was basted, I trimmed the entire piece to 9" x 9".

I found a scrap of fabric and cut 2 1/4" binding. (The scrap was not wide enough to cut 2 1/2" binding which would have been my preference.) I also cut another scrap of fabric for the hangar. Again I was lazy with this part and did not iron the fabric. I finger pressed both sides to the middle and then stitched the edges together. I then sewed it in the middle of one of the sides. Be sure to lay it toward the center so that the opening does not get caught in the binding. Sew binding on. I hand stitched the binding down on the back side. Then I went back to the sewing machine and did another decorative stitch to secure the binding. I sewed from the front of the potholder for this.

Although the potholder is complete at this stage, I decided that I wanted to do some free motion quilting to finish it off.

This is the backside showing the design.

So, there you have it. An idea was born at work today and once I started on it, the finished project took less than 3 hours and included hand stitching. Not bad. Although the fabrics did not look great together in the beginning, I think they turned out beautifully. I've now got my sights set on doing a quilt like this. I really like the way it turned out. Next up, I'm going to do the wash test and the heat test (of course!!). Just another way to use up some of those pesky scraps!