Number one: I need to preface this blog with the following: not all blogs will be about “OWL Rock and Roll Art-to-Wear.” Other projects that fall outside of Rock and Roll, Art-to-Wear, and even areas of interest outside of sewing, quilting, fashion, music and sustainability may be presented as well.
Number two: Fellow stitchers! Today’s blog is a frustrated plea for your sympathy and advise in equal proportions. Yesterday’s tears are today’s cocktails! Pictured above is a recent project I embarked on: crazy quilt oven mitts. These oven mitts are fashioned in a classic Victorian English country style. These lil’ failed gems were intended to be Christmas presents for my family members and for sale online and at a few crafty fairs in town before the holidays. This is not happening. They look simple, but in fact are very complicated to make. Each mitt takes about 6 hours to complete, and of course are presented as pairs. This includes cutting out 4 terry cloth inner layers, 4 quilt batting layers, piecing together 4 quilt tops and then embroidering them. Then all three layers are stacked in order and stitched together. A binding must be applied to the cuff in order to finish it. I was going to stitch a loop to the bottom so they can be hung on a hook, but I gave up before I could get there. Aside from the 6 hours of labor per mitt, the real kicker was trying to poke the thumb piece through when turning the mitt right-side out. It would not go through. So I turned it wrong-side-out again, removed a few thumb stitches, tried again, removed more, turned it right-side-out again, and attempted to hand stitch the hole. All an exercise in futility, as the threads snapped under my tension, it looked like crap, and added another few hours to the process. My intension is to let it go and to move onto the next project. Grrr.
