Taking Care of Essentials with French Braid Oven Mitts

I won't be posting tutorials and sewing hints every week, but during this time right before Christmas I needed to stop and take care of some personal sewing. First came the shortening of some new pants. That's what happens when a person's legs are too long for petites, but too short for regular length.

The second new project was born of desperation and has turned into the pattern in this post. Every single one of my old oven mitts is fit only for the trash, and I have no choice but to replace them.

I am not about to spend good money on oven mitts when I have several drawers filled with fabric scraps. Did you know that some of those mitts cost over $100 each? What on earth are they made of? Not for me. In fact, I won't spend any money at all this time because I'm making my own oven mitts from materials I already have on hand.

Handmade oven mitts are not only a thrifty way to use scraps, but they can be great Christmas stocking replacements and cute, practical gift bags. Fill the mitt with the makings of something yummy or with other little goodies, slap on a bow, and watch the smiles grow. For several years I held December cookie exchange parties for my sewing group friends. One year I made oven mitts from holiday fabrics for every one of those friends. Then I hung the mitts across the fireplace mantle like stockings. They looked so pretty hanging there all in a row. The best part was that they were truly appreciated.

The mug rugs for the cookie exchange party were made from solid pieces of a single fabric. If I were in a hurry this year, I'd make my new ones in the same way. This time, though I was playing with an idea for quilt-as-you-go mitts so I could use up a few of those narrower fabric scraps taking up drawer space. I settled on a French braid design. It's actually a variation of a log cabin pattern. I'm very pleased with it, and it's super easy. That's a must for something that will be used to death in a year.

The Cutting Template

First things first - the pattern for the mitt, itself. You could buy a pattern, or you could use the pattern that comes with each package of Insul-Brite. If you do use the Insul-Brite pattern, be sure to add at least at least 1/2" beyond the marked stitching line for seam allowance. That pattern has terribly narrow seams that simply won't work when you are sewing through so many layers.

I much prefer drawing my own pattern to using something else. For one thing, I have rather short fingers, so many of the oven mitts found in stores are too large for me. If you have an old oven mitt that's a good fit, your pattern practically makes itself.

This is how I drew the template this time.

I first taped two pieces of cardstock together to make a sheet large enough for the outline of the mitt. Plain paper would also work, but I wanted something I could cut out and draw around easily and something that I could keep in a file for a long time.

Then I traced around an old mitt that is a really good fit.  I added 1/2" around the tracing to make a seam allowance and I drew the cutting line. As I sketched, I smoothed out those funny edges that old mitts acquire.

I cut the pattern out and traced around it on tissue paper. The tissue paper is so much easier to pin onto my quilted layers than anything else. It also has the advantage of being transparent which is important for this pattern. I made sure to mark the innermost point of the "v" where the thumb of the pattern meets the fingers section. If it isn't marked it's hard to know exactly how deep the stitching of that "v" should be.

Now that the pattern was ready, I could focus on making the quilted pieces.

Materials and cutting

Materials for each oven mitt:
  * Insul-Bright - 2 pieces 9 1/2" x 14"
   Cotton batting such as Warm and Natural - 2 pieces 9 1/2" x 14"
   Backing fabric - 2 pieces 9 1/2" x 14" (I used thin muslin.)
   From mixed scraps
     - one 7 1/2" square
     - one 8" square
     - one 9"  square
     -  sixteen strips, 1 1/2" x 7 1/2"
     -  one strip, 1 1/2" x 6 1/2" for the loop
     -  one strip, 1 3/4" x 15" - 16" for the binding  (The length of this strip may vary depending on the measurement around the top of the oven mitt. If you prefer, you could use double fold bias tape to finish the top of the mitt.)

*Note: Two layers of cotton batting can be used instead of a single layer of batting and a layer of Insul-Bright. This is the way I used to make all of my oven mitts. They are fine for most purposes, but the Insul-Bright does add extra insulation from heat.  

Stack the backing, Insul-Bright, and batting in that order to make two quilt sandwiches, one for either side of the oven mitt.

 The Insul-Bright is slippery, so I used just a light spritz of quilt basting spray to help keep things in place while sewing.

Cut out the fabrics. Cut each of the three squares in half diagonally to make half square triangles. 

Make the quilt as you go quilt sandwich for the oven mitt.

1. Lay the widest side of  a triangle cut from the 7 1/2" square right side up at the center top of the batting of the one of the two layered quilt sandwiches.  

2. Lay one of the 1 1/2" x 7 1/2" right sides together against either short side of the triangle. Line the edge of the strip up with the square angle of the triangle. Stitch along the length of the strip with a 1/4" seam

3. Fold the strip out and press. Lay another strip along the other side of the triangle right sides together. Again, line the end of the strip up with the corner of the triangle. Stitch, fold, and press as before.

4.

5. Continue in this manner, alternating sides and stitching strips until there are four strips on either side of the quilt sandwich to complete the French braid effect.

6. Lay a short leg of a triangle from the 8" square as if it were another strip. Align the right angle of the triangle with the right angles created by the alternating strips. Stitch along this edge with a 1/4" seam.

My seams must not all have been exactly 1/4" because the strips were getting a little out of alignment. I made a minor adjustment with the triangle to line everything up again.

 7. Press this triangle out.

8. A triangle from the 9" square is sewn on last. Lay the bias edge of the triangle over the last strip and sew with a 1/4"seam.

9. Press this triangle out.

10. The quilt sandwich for one side of the oven mitt is finished. Make the sandwich for the other side of the mitt in exactly the same way.

Construction of the mitts

1. Use your oven mitt pattern to cut one side of the mug rug from one of the quilt sandwiches.  Flip the pattern over and cut the other side of the oven mitt from the second quilt sandwich.

2. Mark the dot for the "v" on the lining of both pieces of the oven mitt.

3. Place the two sections right sides together and pin from the outer wrist to the center of the finger section. Stitch around this portion of the mitt only. Sew with a 3/8" seam allowance. 

Half an inch seam allowance was added to the pattern, but you should sew with a slightly smaller seam allowance. When turned right side out some of that 1/2" seam allowance you drew on your template will be taken up by the sheer thickness of the layers of fabric, batting, and insulation.

4. Trim close to the seam from the top of the wrist to about 1" down. Reinforce that seam with a machine zigzag stitch. Here I go using my good old blanket stitch again. I do like the clean edge created by this stitch. 

5. Make the binding for the the top of the oven mitt.  Fold the oven mitt open and measure the top. Measure the top of the wrist. Cut the 1 3/4" wide strip about 1/2" longer than that measurement.   

Note: If you are going to use ready made seam binding, cut it about 1/2" longer than the distance across the top of the wrist and sew it in place. 

6. Press one edge of the binding strip over 1/4". 

7. Pin the right side of the raw edge of this strip to the wrong side of top of the oven mitt. 

The right side of the binding is facing the wrong side of the oven mitt. 

8. Sew with a 1/4" seam. Fold the binding over the front of the oven mitt and attach it to the right side of the mitt with a top stitch close to the edge of the binding.

9. Make the loop for hanging the oven mitt from the 1 1/2" x 6 1/2" strip of fabric. 

Top stitch close to the edge of the fold.

9. Fold the loop in half. Place it about an inch down from the wrist opening on the right side of one section of the thumb side of the mitt. Make sure the loop points up at an angle. Pin it in place and stay stitch it very close to the side edge of the raw seam.

10. Pin the two halves of the oven mitt together, taking care that all edges are lined up. Sew the rest of the way around the mitt. Reinforce the "v" with one or two extra rows of stitching.

 11. Trim the entire seam close to the stitching. Machine zigzag stitch over the seam.

12. With a sharp scissors, snip almost to the point of the "v". You will be cutting through some of the zig zag stitches, but be careful not to cut through the straight reinforced stitching.

13. Turn the mitt right side out, press smooth, and you are finished!

Wishing you a super week! 

A Bit of Quilting and a Cookie Recipe

A Beginning Quilter 

Before I get to the cookie recipe in this post, I simply must show you photos of some work by a first time quilter. Seriously, first time! Amazing work. My first quilts are meant only to be hidden away and forgotten.

Deb had never sewn until she recently inherited a sewing machine that she didn't even know how to thread. So what does she tackle first? A quilt with traditional piecing, paper foundation piecing, fusible web applique with blanket stitching, and free motion quilting. What a way to jump in head first, and what a learning curve. Unbelievable result!

 

And this is what she's making for her second quilting experience. Can't wait to see it finished. An amazing quilter has been born. Who knows what the future holds.

My Latest Obsession

Even though I'm in the midst of a Christmas baking frenzy this week, with flour flying and the kitchen looking like a hurricane went through, I can't get the idea of a quilt along row quilt out of my head. I keep chasing to the table between cookies going in and out of the oven to design different rows. As you can see, my table is covered in graph paper and other drawing paraphernalia!

It's starting to come together. I think.

My tabletop quilt isn't nearly this bright! Strange photo.

I seriously need to get back to my holiday preparations. I don't have time to play! Gingerbread cookies are waiting to be decorated, there's a cookie exchange party next Friday, the house hasn't yet been decorated, no gifts have beeb wrapped, and on and on!

Cookies

Along with the special Christmas cookies, though I did take time to bake up a batch or our favorite everyday cookies. I hope these will deter some of the early snitching of Christmas cookies as I'd like to save those until Christmas Eve.

The humble recipe I'm sharing has been a staple at our house from the time my children reached the cookie monster age. I chose early on to focus on making even their sweet treats as healthy as I could. The oatmeal, raisins, and walnuts in our family cookies provide a bit of nutrition along with the inescapable sugar and butter!

These have been our favorites for half a century now.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Makes 3 - 4 dozen cookies depending on size. I make them small, so I easily get 4 1/2 dozen.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t soda
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t cloves
• 1 c chopped walnuts
• Additional sugar for cookie tops

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375°.
2. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment.
3. Put water and raisins into a pot and heat just until the water reaches a boil. Save 6 tablespoons of the raisin water. Drain the raisins and set aside to cool.
4. Place the flour, salt, soda, allspice, and cinnamon in a small bowl and stir to mix.
5. In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar until smooth.
6. Add eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time. Blend well after each addition.
7. Add dry ingredients to the large bowl and beat until smooth.
8. Mix in raisin liquid alternately with oatmeal. 
9. Stir in raisins and walnuts.
10. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork dipped in water. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of sugar on the top of each cookie.
11. Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned.

The Last Holiday Pattern of the Year: Part 2

It's finished!

I was beginning to wonder if I'd make it before Christmas arrives. It didn't make my deadline by a couple of days, but here it is at last. My hubby's newest favorite. Again.

Three tabletop pieces made from so very versatile blocks. All the pieces use the small block with the poinsettia in the center, and the larger pieces are made with added corner triangles holding holly leaves and berries. I can just see these basic blocks put together in different ways - everything from a long, thin table runner to a full size bed quilt.

As always, the sewing wasn't hard at all. It stitched up quickly without any hitches. The problem? Writing the pattern. And the math!!

Thank goodness for my facebook friends!

Facebook friends, I LOVE you!!

Here's the story.

I'd never written a pattern that contains three different sizes and I was having an awful time figuring out how to do it. I settled on the knit and crochet method of places the various measurements in parenthesis from smallest to largest. It worked for me, but I wasn't sure, so I asked the folks on facebook. 

Cutting Instructions                                   Sewing Instructions     

Oh my! Talk about confusion! It was back to the drawing board and a brand new plan of attack.

Charts for the fabric and cutting instructions:

And a totally different approach to sewing instructions:

I think it's sorted out! 

So thank you again my dear friends on facebook! I come to you with all of my problems and you are such wonderful helpers!

I'm not done with thanking people! I needed photographs. My dining room table has a glass top and sits in the end of the room far from windows. Not good for pictures of table runners! My friend, Dee, came to the rescue with the offer of a dining room to use for my photo session. She let me rearrange furniture, and after photos were taken we had a lovely visit over a cup of coffee. Thanks, Dee! I enjoyed every minute of our time together.

The final photos are the result of my visit to Dee's house. 

Table Runner

Medium size topper

 Small topper

And that's it! No more holiday patterns this year! I don't know what comes next, but it won't be for Christmas and it will have to wait until my cookies are baked! I'll start with these orange, walnut refrigerator cookies because they keep the best.

Happy Stitching, Everyone!!

Oh, if you'd like to follow me on facebook, you can find me here: 

https://www.facebook.com/KLee2Strings

The Last Holiday Pattern of the Year: Part 1

I haven't written in my blog, I haven't posted a new pattern, I haven't kept up with my housework, and I haven't even begun preparing for Thanksgiving. I would feel horribly guilty if it weren't for this one little thing that's kept me busy and totally preoccupied.

What can need so much attention? The blame all belongs to the last holiday pattern of the year. It's not the last pattern, mind you, just the last one with a holiday theme.

This one is taking forever! I'm making three different variations of the pattern, too. Thank goodness, it's turning into something I really, really like!  From the beginning I had a vision in my head, but creating that vision in fabric has been quite a challenge this time.

The background was the easy part. I finished the piecing earlier in the week and only needed to fill in the blank white spaces with color. 

The appliques, though! Oh my goodness, what a marathon of trial and error! I don't know how much paper I must have gone through in designing them. What should be so complex about poinsettias and holly that the planning should take three days?  

Thank goodness, I was finally finished with the templates yesterday afternoon. The poinsettia appliques are in three sections each. Aligning every little piece of a petal of leaf individually was just too much like working with a jigsaw puzzle. 

I had errands to run this morning, but the afternoon was spent fusing appliqes in place. By dinnertime they were firmly attached to the table runner, the small table topper, and the really small table topper. Tomorrow I plan to blanket stitch everything in place.  I hope to be be finished with the sewing and the pattern by Thanksgiving. "Hope" is the key word here. Fingers crossed!

I won't give everything away quite yet, but this shows the poinsettias before the applique stitching. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

It's going to be a busy one at my house! A pattern to finish, a birthday cake to bake, and Thanksgiving dinner is at my house this year! Yikes!

A Christmas Elf and a Trick or Two

I always have fun with my sewing, but this little guy was especially delightful to make. It was a special request, and I'm so glad Sue asked for an elf!

Thank you, thank you, Sue!

It started with a quick pencil sketch.

As always,  I took it to my husband for his opinion.  When his face broke into a smile I knew it was okay.

I made the templates in the morning and spent most of the afternoon choosing fabrics. Lots of Christmas prints and a small scrap of a "flesh" colored solid. That "flesh" color could be anything on the spectrum from pale cream to deep ebony, but I chose the color that matches my own family for this one.

Trick # 1

"Where did you find the flesh color fabric?" my friend Midge, asked. 

Quilting cotton in most flesh tones is pretty hard to come by, so I modified the color of my fabric with an easy trick. I started with Kona cotton in peach, then I used the old trick of altering the color of the fabric with tea. 

The original Kona cotton and four little sample sections for testing color.

Here are the instructions:

1. Get out bowl that is sufficiently large to hold your fabric with room to spare and place 2 teabags into the bowl for every cup of water that you will need to completely immerse your piece of fabric. 

2. Pour boiling water over the tea bags and let it steep for about 10 minutes. 

3. Drop the fabric into the tea. Swirl it a bit to ensure an even stain. If you need to leave the fabric unattended, make sure that no pockets or air are lifting sections of it to the surface. 

4. When you think the fabric might be about the right color, rinse it in cold water and dry it. It will lighten as it dries. If the color isn't dark enough, put the fabric back in the tea bath for a bit longer. The fabric can be made several shades darker with extended time in the tea. 

To achieve very dark stains you may need to reheat the tea with the fabric in it. That's what I did with the darkest sample in the photo below. It took about half an hour to reach that lovely, nut brown, flesh color.

Four shades of flesh tones achieved through being left in the tea for longer periods of time.
They are placed on top of the original peach cotton.

Trick # 2

Faces made of real flesh are not a solid color! Color adds health and beauty to a face. Why else would we need makeup?

My flesh colored fabric needed to look healthy and alive, too! Instead of makeup,  I added color with colored pencils and embroidery floss. I started with a red pencil and a brown one. 

Using a blunted red pencil I added a soft blush to the cheeks, the inner parts of the ears, and the nose. After that I added definition to the ears and nose with a very sharp brown pencil. I felt like I was a little girl again, coloring in my coloring book! Definitely playtime for me.

The eyes and mouth were embroidered, but they really don't have to be. Drawing them with a fine tipped magic marker is just fine. Just make sure to test the markers on a small scrap of your fabric first! Sometimes the markers will bleed into the fabric and ruin it. 

Trick # 3

Some of the pieces in this pattern are pretty small, so they were a bit tricky to place. First I planned my layout, then I used a straight pin to get the pieces where I wanted them. I found that it was best to fuse one layer at a time to keep the pieces from slipping out of position under the iron. It helps enormously to avoid ironing back and forth on them. Simply press the iron straight down on top of the appliques and apply pressure.

Ta-da!

"Wrapped and Ready", the finished mug rug! 

I'd be grinning too if I had my Christmas packages all wrapped and ready to go!

And now it's time to move on to the next project. If I'm not mistaken, somebody wanted a table runner. Back to the sewing room!

Toss-it-Together Crock Pot Chili

Brrr!!!

The Polar Vortex has arrived!  

Yesterday I was out running errands in the bitter cold. No fun at all! Today, though, I didn't have to be anywhere so I could stay warm and focus on doing things indoors. Goodness knows, there is always plenty to do around the house!  There were the typical morning chores - make the bed, get dressed, take care of laundry, think of something to fix for dinner, and such. Then I planned to stitch the binding onto my latest mug rug and work a bit on the pattern. That was all.

Wow! There was time to do some real cooking for a change! It seems like I've been pulling food from the freezer and heating our dinners in the microwave a lot recently. I considered dinner while I stirred my morning oatmeal on the stove. What to cook on a day like this? It would have to be comfort food - something hot and flavorful.

I checked quickly for ingredients on hand. I had everything needed for chili. Perfect. A super choice for a cold, wintery day. I could make a great, big old pot of it, enough for two meals and some for the freezer, as well.

Since I was cooking chili, I had to bake cinnamon rolls, too.

I mean, I HAD to. We live in Nebraska.

Is it only in Nebraska that chili can't be served without cinnamon rolls? I'd never heard of this combination before moving here. In this part of the prairie, cinnamon rolls can be found without chili, but chili is almost never served without cinnamon rolls. We've been here for 36 years, so I've got used to this tradition.

It's actually a very tasty combination, nothing like my mother's pairing of liver and onions with spinach. That was a meal my father had grown up eating, and he asked Mom to cook it fairly regularly. When we frowned at our plates, he'd say, "Eat healthy food or go hungry". We ate.

I used a Paula Deen recipe for the cinnamon rolls. Decadent, but oh, so yummy. There was only one minor little hitch. The recipe says to allow 1 to 1 1/2 hours for the first rising and about 30 minutes for the second rising. I had to triple those times to get the dough to double! I used quick rising yeast and placed the dough in a warm oven, too. I have no idea what the problem was. I wonder if I need a new batch of yeast. I had almost given up hope, but thank goodness, the dough did rise eventually. I was so glad I'd started early in the morning!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/cinnamon-rolls-recipe.html

Back to the chili.

My recipe is really basic. There aren't many essential ingredients, and I pretty much toss everything into a pot without much measuring. When I was young and just learning how to cook, I followed my mother's recipe faithfully right down to the last 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. But that was more than 50 years ago.

Baking requires exact measurements, but other foods not so much. My toss-it-together chili varies a bit from time to time depending on what ingredients I have available. This time there was no need for substitutions.

Toss-it-Together Crock Pot Chili 

1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 or 4 baby carrots, grated
1 green pepper, chopped
1 T olive oil
1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey
2 T dried parsley
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
2 16 oz. cans of diced tomatoes
3 cups of water (more or less depending on how thick you like your chili)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder (more or less depending on how spicy you like your chili)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 16 oz. cans of dark red kidney beans

Saute the chopped onions it the olive oil until golden. Add the minced garlic, grated carrots, and chopped green pepper. Stir and fry a couple of minutes more until the garlic starts to brown. Toss this mix into a crock pot. Brown the ground beef in the same pan.

Add the beef, parsley, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, water, chili powder, salt and pepper to the crock pot.

If the crockpot is set on low, the chili can simmer all day.  

I don't like to add the kidney beans until about an hour before we plan to eat. If they are added too early they can get mushy.

As the chili simmered and the cinnamon rolls rose (ever so slowly) I finished the stitching on my mug rug. Everything on my list was complete.

*****

Dinner is over now and the kitchen is cleaned. I didn't even have time to think about the weather!

It's been a fairly busy day, so I'm planning a very relaxed evening.

I'm going to lean back in my recliner, pull my "Snowball Fight" quilt over my lap, and read on in my book until it's time for bed.

Wishing you all a lovely evening!