You probably don’t give your oven mitts a second look in the kitchen, do you? They are just there to serve the purpose of protecting your hands from hot items you need to grab. But… what if we turned those basic kitchen linens into a fun curated mini quilt for your hands?
This week on YouTube, I am creating an entire batch of mini quilts you can wear, aka, scrappy oven mitts!
I have shared a post and video in the past (find that info HERE) on how I use the free Suzy Quilts Quilted Oven Mitt Tutorial to create a whole batch of fun and functional oven mitts full of love from the scrap bins. Currently, I am working through a dozen or so for a local artisan farm store to sell. Here are a few of the curated mini quilts for your hands I have created.
Fun Color Combinations
The key to creating these oven mitts for me is rummaging through my scrap bin to find an inspirational print I can use to pull together the whole color story. In the orchid, mint, and orange mitts below, I started with this GORGEOUS Sharon Holland for Art Gallery Fabrics wildflower print from a few years back. I originally made several quilts using this print as the jumping-off point, but I had never focused on the orchid tones.
For me, this was a totally unexpected combination along with the mint and dark rusty oranges, but I just LOVE how they came out. Again, this is an opportunity to play because the quilt is so small. There will not be one thousand hours or dollars in and then find out you don’t love the color combination you chose. Can you say freedom!?
Go Bold
To really drive home the point of freedom in the fabric, here are a few examples of really bold prints I would otherwise have some serious trepidation in using on a whole quilt. The acid green and bright orange daisy prints are fabulous but could be overwhelmingly bold in the large dose of a quilt. They deserve to be celebrated for the fun they bring to the table (pun intended), and here in these mini quilts, I can do just that.
Small amounts of anything bold will seem to jump off the composition. In the oven mitts it is a welcome way to create interest and get a lot of mileage out of a small fabric cut.
Rock the Theme
By now, you gotta know I love to name my color stories to help me tell the tale of those fabrics. Sometimes, I just love the name of the collection so much that I have to run with it and allow it to guide my story. Here the bright orange daisy print from Alexia Abegg for Ruby Star Society is literally called GOLDEN HOUR! What’s not to love about that!?! Not only is it my favorite time in the garden, it also turned out to be one of my favorite oven mitt color stories.
I let that beautiful, saturated orange and the floral print drive all of my other fabric choices to build a darling one-of-a-kind color combination for my oven mitts that is so bright, bold, and totally dreamy.
Have Fun, Make Dozens
Like little potato chips, I bet you can’t make just one pair of these scrappy oven mitts. Once you get started and run wild with the scraps in your bins, I bet you will enjoy the off-the-cuff combination you can create in this small and approachable format.
If you want more details on how to make the oven mitts in this style, check out my process video HERE:
Share Your Creativity!
If you join in with the videos or create the scrappy oven mitts above, don’t forget to share your work with the La Rue de Fleurs community by tagging me on IG @laruedefleurs and using the hashtags #lrdfscrapquiltinginspo and #laruedefleurspatterns. I hope you’ll join me and have fun using those scrap fabrics!
Stay creative (and scrappy) friends, Janice
Inspiration and resources are linked where applicable. All written work and photographs are original content and are copyright protected; kindly give due credit by linking back to my website or source website if you use or share.
(©2023, Janice Bailor // laruedefleurs.com)