Tuesday, October 27, 2009

bath mat


Why did it take me so long to realize the beauty of square patchwork? It's so damn easy and it looks much fresher than I would have thought. I think that it might be boring to work a huge project entirely in square patches, but it's very satisfying for tiny projects like this bath mat and the laundry bags I've been making.

This mat is destined for the yellow-walled "guest" bathroom, which is in fact used by everybody except me, because I have taken over the master bathroom in perpetuity (thank you, husband, for allowing this).

Of course, my cheerful new bathmat is making the rest of the bathroom look like a prison cell. I want to do something to brighten up the rest of the room. Colored towels are usually not allowed in my home because I find them incredibly depressing (don't ask) but now I wonder whether colored towels could be worse than dingy "white" towels. I also want a fancy shower curtain, although I'm not sure how to make that happen without it being too mold-friendly (although.... hmmm)

The how: the top is just three inch squares. I laid it face down on an old towel, stitched around the perimeter, turned & topstitched. Then I quilted in the ditch horizontally. It was easy, but the towel shifted weirdly while I was quilting it, almost like it was stretching. So there are some lumps at the edges. It's not a big deal, but next time I'll probably assemble it a little differently to avoid this problem.

6 comments:

Kira said...

Oh phew. I was starting to wonder if you were in labor. I will really be sad when October is over if you don't continue to post daily.

I have no idea how to quilt, either, and all of your recent projects look so cool. Do you need anything special in order to quilt? I mean, other than a standard sewing machine?

Not Hannah said...

This is a great idea, particularly as I have a lot of towels from my wedding gifts that need to be recycled.

Anonymous said...

ive been wanting to make one of these. my bathmat is very very sad.

Karen said...

I'm now addicted to bathmat-making. Ugly towels + scraps = bathmat. Yay!

No you don't need anything special to quilt--your machine just has to be able to do a straight stitch. That's all. A rotary cutter, mat, and clear ruler are really helpful for cutting out fabric, but you can cope without.

Amanda, Jake, and Parker Patow said...

What about it being all towel? The top side is different colored squares of towels!? Do you think that would be too thick to get through the machine?

Karen said...

I think the seams would be really thick if the top was all towel. Maybe if you zig-zagged on top of all the seams that would make the seams flatter. Now you have me wondering.