Hot Water Bottle Cozy

Oo, I've been having fun! And I still have more ideas in my head.

Moving right along in the "let's be really productive" area....

Peek a-boo

Pretty flower! (I got some new die cuts from Michael's thanks to a GC from my inlaws. THANKS!)

 Toadstool

This one is fleece. I couldn't pass up the fun print.

And to fulfill my argyle obsession. I LOVE the pocket!

The sweater already had the stringy design. It and the flower are a lovely muted lilac.

And my squealy bear. I have a few more animal ideas for these. AND I found a smaller hot water bottle for the next ones. Adorable.

I think all of these will be going to Dots and Loops

Cheers,

Amanda

there's more!

These are so addictive! Another teapot cozy. 

 It is a good stash buster for all those sweaters deemed too itchy, too thin, too scratchy, too, too

 Same goes for the hot water bottle covers. The red one is cotton with angora. Not so good for mittens, but perfect for a hot water bottle. I need to get me more sweaters!

 The end of a wet, rainy day brought a rainbow.

 A double arc!

Have a good one!

Amanda

Hot Water Bottle Covers

Boy, it's cold out there today. Wind chill and everything. Now we get to find all the little air leaks in our windows and doors. Brrrr. I guess the weather has inspired me to make these hot water bottle covers. They've been in my mind since last year. Now I can't stop making them.

 I googled and found All About You. What a great resource. I'm looking forward to coming back to that site and doing a little lookin'.

The stitching is done using the stretch stitch on my  machine. The thread is supposed to have a little shine to it also. I guess it's competing with the fuzziness of the cashmere. How decadent... Cashmere hot water bottle cover. Bring out the chocolates and rum!

 This sweater had the buttons on it already. And a little hole at the bottom. Enter: red heart applique. I still need to hand stitch the button facings shut so they don't gape. 

 This white one was the first I made and took inspiration from the tutorial.

 See the difference between the stretch stitch on the outline and the normal stitch in the middle of the petals?

 And a picture of the back. Note: the white one has the overlap with the bottom on the outside. It pooks open when you hold it, so I changed to have the over lap on the top. Much better.

I think with one of these wrapped around my neck and a hot water bottle on my toes, I'll be good to curl up with a book.

But tonight, I'm going to the library to make pillow cases for children with cancer. More details to follow.

Have a good one,

Amanda

heat pack

With the cooler weather this past weekend, I made a few heat sacks with rice inside. The kids claimed them. Instead of making another with rice, I did a little looking on the net to see what else you could put in them. Then I went to the garden centre to see what I could find. We don't have a bulk barn here.

I have Flax seed, winter rye/wheat, seed oats, yellow split peas, white rice, large oat flakes and some barley malt that DH uses to make his beer.

 I made 3.5 x 4 inch cotton bags and put 1/4 cup of each in the packs.

 I put them all in the microwave for about 1 minute, 30 seconds. The large magic bags, I put in for a t least 2 minutes.

Here's my finding:

Split yellow peas were very hot to touch. Too hot. And smelled like pea soup. Not something I would want wrapped around my neck. :}

Barley malt: did not get any heat at all. DH says that the husk is too fragile to reheat all the time.

Seed oats got a nice heat.

Flax seed: I read that it takes a little longer to heat, but holds the heat longer than rice. So I put it on by itself for an extra 20 seconds. It did have a nice heat. It felt so smooth and soft also. DH liked that one the best.

Winter rye/wheat.. I don't remember.

Large oat flakes: didn't take much heat and would probably turn into flour like substance after much use.

Rice: held heat the longest. I did this whole experiment because I wanted something to hold the heat longer and of all the things I tried it was rice. 

I did like the flax also. 

I think I will try it again with only rice and flax and use a larger amount of flax to see if it holds heat longer.

This is the one I made for Rafael.

 And the orange one is for Neve. I used this awesome tutorial from Wise Craft and put some lavender in the orange one. it smells divine.

So tell me, do you have any experience or advice on heat packs and what to put inside of them?

 I snapped a pic of this symbolic leaf ...

 on the way to getting this picture. Neve has been reading up a storm. She brings her books into bed to read to me first thing in the morning. She is so excited to be reading chapter books. Presently, she is reading all about Poppelton and Mr Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant. I'm happy about it too.

We have to go back to the library to find more from this author.

Off to stir my apple sauce from apples in the garden.

Have a good one,

Amanda