I love this time of year. The final lingering of summer warmth with just that nip in the air and the unmistakable smell of autumn creeping in. I confess I do love autumn and early winter, the cosy thoughts of fires and long evenings. It helps being a lover of craft, winter evenings offer the promise of unlimited indulgent knitting and quilting. Today I had a million things to do, but I decided I would give myself over to a little bit of squirrelly preparation for the winter ahead! I had been wanting for ages to make a set of lid warmers (?is that what they are called?) for the cosy Rayburn (Mrs HotBottom as she's known in our house).You can buy white quilted versions for the round lids of agas at the posh shop nearby for an extortionate amount, but as a committed lover of all things patchworky, plain white ones weren't going to cut the mustard with me whatever the price.
I had in mind a plan for some scandi-mid century Rayburn warmers and the idea had been bubbling away for the summer just awaiting the autumn urge to make them a reality. Inspired by my favourite tea towel I decided to go with the sardine shape, in blues to match my kitchen, on an oatmealy linen background with the backs lined with a cut up old towel.The bright pink one wriggled its way in there as it was all looking a bit too tasteful understated and Wedgwood blue!
I appliqued the fish to the linen backing, bulked up the pads with two layers of standard cotton batting and the towel as the backing. I machine quilted around each fish then bound them with a standard double fold binding, looped at one corner to make a hanging loop. I was really rather pleased with them, you cant beat a bit of feelgood 'fun' sewing on a whim!
However now that long list of preparation for my autumn classes is calling me so I'm off to my sewing room to work on some lovely samples of the class blocks that I am working up, and to put the final finishing touches to the Advanced Applique Quilt for my class in the new year which is almost ready for its ta dah! moment on the blog, bye for now and enjoy this weather while it lasts!
