Blue Bowl Rug

My first ever bowl rug and my first finished project for the Rainbow Challenge! I had to make it small and simple since I missed the Scrappy Saturday (I didn't find out about this until Sunday.)

Ok, I know your thinking "Bowl rug?" Well here's the scoop on that. The moment my daughter comes home from school she pretty much heads straight for the kitchen for her snack. Usually that involves a bowl and the microwave. We don't have hot pads, just mitts so to spare her hands a hot bowl she kidnaps my kitchen towels which I don't see until I have none left and go hunting for them in her room (teenagers!). So the plan is to save my towels by making her a weeks worth of bowl rugs.

I'm using a single layer of insul brite tm for the batting, and on this, my first one I used a "quilt as you go" method. What was so fun about this, is that it gave me a chance to test some of the pretty stitches on my sewing machine!
I've had it for over two years but have only recently gotten back into sewing after a work enforced hiatus. (They didn't not let me sew, but after a 12 hour day, I just didn't WANT to sew.)

Ok so here I am digging through my "scraps" for blue's. Most of my scraps are 45" long and 2" wide. They're from a tied baby blanket that I made over 6 years ago for a nephew. I went a wee bit overboard on cutting the strips so I have LOTS.

I regret that I have no during shots of my rug top, but once I got involved there was no stopping me. When I got finished with it there was the wee little matter of squaring it up though.
My solution was to cut a piece of freezer paper to an 81/2" square, iron it in place and trim the edges. Some days my brilliance astounds even me! :)
Front is done, next...

My back was a cut and insert, repeat twice piece, and hey, I'm going to use that piece of freezer paper again!
Check out ma' bad self, I'm a cuttin' a perfect block!
With my two perfect 8.5 inch pieces, I lined the two up and did a quick zig zag around the outer edge to make binding a bit easier. Using an ooold technique I made my own binding from one of the straight cut pieces. No bias here.
Now to apply it, complete with mitered corners which I'm finally getting the hang of.
Now, flip it over and hand sew the bind...Naaaahhh, just kidding. I tend to avoid hand sewing like the plague. So lets test another pretty stitch from the 174 that I have to choose from. I think some pretty shiny blue thread up top is just the thing!
And ta da! My lovely bowl rug is done!

Thanks so much for popping by, it's been lovely!