Potholders and potlickers

 How about a hot pad? I made a table runner and wasn't crazy with the final colors on that particular chenille project, so I cut it up and made 3 hot pads in the blue above.  Below are the finished projects.  First on the left, red and green printed flannels and on the right, the one I previously posted.  The lower example shows the back when you use a matching thread. 

 From last post, the next step is to turn the edges of the larger back piece to the front and stitch down.  The edges need not be turned under, but if you trim and sew about 1/2 inch to the front(or you could use a commercial binding), take one row of stitching near the chenille and a second row of stitches about 1/16"(in the binding) from the first to make sure it is secure.  The idea is for it to ravel.  Throw the potholder in the wash and  dryer and this will chenille like magic!

With the onset of winter, the Mr. has begun to feed his chickens,( banded doves).  They roost in the tree next door and wait for him to fill the feeder with chicken scratch.  He also keeps a heated water source for them all winter.  At this feeder there were all these doves, 2 red winged blackbirds and two blue jays, all scrambling for dinner.

Crafting a potholder

 This looks weird at this point. This will be the the last step above for today. But when I post the finished project, you will see why I am hooked on these for myself or for gifts.  Start with one 10" piece of flannel (green here), one 8 1/2" piece of batting and five 8 1/2" pieces of flannel of various colors. Stack the large square, the batting and one piece of 8 1/2" piece(right side up on this piece) together and set aside.  Take the other 4 pieces, any pattern and stack right side up.  Cut diagonally in one direction and without moving the flannel, cut diagonally the other way,corner to corner cutting through all 4 pieces. Then rotate the triangles so that a different pattern is in each set of triangles.  Placing one set of triangles on top of the first piece, start the first line of stitching 1/4" from the edge and sew from center, back stitching at the beginning to lock stitches) and stop about 1/2" from the bottom edge. Click on the picture to see more easily. The remaining rows are 1/2" apart. The picture below is the first step.

 You will do all four sets of triangles. Do in a matching thread, but I did this to let you see  what the lines of stitching look like. After the stitching is done, clip between the lines of stitching through only the top 4 layers, leaving the layer next to the batting uncut. See the top picture.  Get to this point and

I will post the finishing and how neat the "chenille" process is.  I saw  a demo of a neck scarf made in a similar manner and it was beautiful.  More about that later.

Kitchen reno and Murphy's Law

Although I am very pleased with the end result, it has not been without a few disasters.  The ceilings had never been painted and in the dining room area the ceiling is that popcorn finish.  Now having lived in a few places, I have dealt with popcorn ceilings.  In fact the last place had GLITTER in the ceilings.  We did successfully paint it out, but always with the same color.  Because it usually has never been painted people remove this with a spray of water and some scraping.  It gets dirty after a few years folks!!!  I decided to paint it with the same color as the walls...a little more beige than before.  YUK!  Even with a sponge roller designed for this project, it has been a disaster.   But let me regress.  Thursday, we opted to go for coffee with a friend.  We were gone for perhaps an hour and 45 minutes.  When we arrived home this kitchen floor was a flood of water.  The dishwasher? The sink?...The Mr. went downstairs and the furnace room was flooded, it had run all over the basement.  He lost some of his leather patterns...a mess.  The culprit?  The connection on the fridge for the water supply for the ice maker had blown out!  We spent 2 hrs with 2 vacuums upstairs and down and pulled up flooring in the kitchen...at least a third of this will need to be replaced.  (We were lucky enough to find 2 boxes at the big box store today but were told it has been discontinued) Will do that when we get time.  Meanwhile, had to buy another gallon of paint for the ceiling and still haven't got it all covered.  More work for this week.  My 5 shades that I scored for the chandelier look great here but as we were painting today one of them got pushed against a bulb and suddenly we had smoke rising up and now one of those shades has a large hole in it.  If it can go wrong, it will!  We will take tomorrow off and go for a drive.

Orange

 I have been away from this blog for several weeks.  The quilt show in Jackson and the trip was really a blast...too much to tell here, but the day I came home I became really sick.  I don't know if I got a bug (no one else got sick) or if I ate something nasty but it laid me out for days!!!  I have a cast iron gut normally, but this was no fun.  Then it took me days to catch up on things and friends and the furkids and the garden.  Today, I dug the last of the carrots below and still have one batch to put in the freezer.  The cantaloupe  above was a volunteer in my garden and had lots of small melons growing.  However, this one was the only one that was mature enough to harvest before the frost hit and it was absolutely delicious!

 Last weekend we had our first snow...7 inches in fact.  It was extremely wet and with the wind, broke lots of trees and branches, but the California poppies below, as well as one delphinium and some cosmos are still blooming.

I have been meeting with my fellow quilters and have learned some new techniques, one of which I will share for those of you who want a neat craft project in the near future.  I also finished my Sylvia's Bridal sampler and will get a picture of that.  Glad to be back and hope to stay healthy for a while.
"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." ~ E.E. Cummings