What To Do With Those Leftover Blocks and Bits!

This and the following are some of the many many potholders I made out of leftover blocks from different quilts.  I was trying out a new binding  technique as binding small things neatly is difficult. After about 30 tries, I became somewhat successful!!  Still need to be viewed from a distance but are functional as potholders at least!!

 

This technique starts as machine binding usually starts with a folded 2 1/2 strips folded in half and sewed around the outside of the back of the potholder.  How it differs is that you leave a longish strip that you don't sew down and then you sew all the way arond right up to where you started.  Then the fun begins!  You position the beginning piece perpendicular over the ending piece.  This is not for the faint of heart as there is a lot of fabric.  After about 10 tries, I finally started using a pin to hold it in place for sewing and made sure I had a lot of overlap.

With some luck, you sew  diagonally across and then trim.  Besides just trimming to 1/4 inch, I also lop off the top piece and don't open the seam but push it so nothing shows and then sew down from the front side as always!

I saw this technique on my quilt club FB page.  I had to reference it a couple of times to get it right.

This was another technique I picked up from my quilt club FB page!  The post just suggested you use leftover pieces of quilted fabric leftover from projects to make glasses cases.  

I had a seven inch piece of quilted fabric that has been lying around in my sewing room for years and years.  I ordered some seven inch zippers and made small bags and a glasses case using up every inch!!

This is not what a palm treed in SE North Carolina is supposed to look like!  Of course, there was nothing to do but sew as snow stops everything outside of your house!

Just a Few More Quilts and Stuff

Just a couple more of the quilts I have completed.  I know there are more but may have missed a few pics!

The next two pictures are of potholders I did to give out to the ladies in the cookie exchange.  The ones in this picture were grabbed first to my surprise as I like the brightly colored ones myself.  I tried several techniques for putting on bincing and finally went with NOT doing the 45 degree angle instead doing a straight seam to finish them off.  They are only 7 in x 7 in so that angled seam was a nightmare.

All of these were made from leftover quilt blocks.  Some I cut down a bit.I will definitey be doing more of these as it is a great use of leftover blocks.