Pansy Potholders

The pansies and violas blooming in my garden inspired these new potholders!  

Materials:
*white cotton fabric
*black cotton fabric
*Insulbrite insulating fabric
*SetaSilk silk paint - primary yellow, tangerine, gitane blue, and iris violet - I introduced SetaSilk in this past post on silk painting, they work on cotton too!
*black, cream, purple, and yellow sewing thread

1.  Look at pansies - either the real flowers or an image from the internet.  For the bottom petal, I mixed a little of the yellow and orange together to get a golden yellow.  Paint the colors in around the outline and then a few stripes inside that shape.  Use a wet brush and water to scrub the fabric until the yellow blends through the whole petal.

2.  Do the same with purple for the middle two petals.  I kept a white zone in between the yellow and purple to keep them from mixing - they still mixed but it ends up looking fine, a little bit like ruffly petals.

3.  I then added a little blue into the purple petals and again scrubbed it with water.

4.  Finally, I added a top petal and scrubbed a little purple into that.

5.  Cut the pansy out, making a few waves in the petals, and pin it on top of Insulbrite and the black backing fabric.

6.  Cut out along the edge of the pansy.  Pull back the pansy top layer and cut about 1/4 inch in on the Insulbrite.

7.  Using black thread and a small zigzag stitch, sew around the outside edge.  Trim.

8.  Use black thread to thread sketch (free motion stitching, see this post) around the outside of the petals.  Add lines on the inside of each petal.

9.  Sew over it with purple thread.

10.  With cream thread, sew over the lines inside the petals.

11.  Add a spiral with yellow thread, going over it several times.

Tada!

Happy Creating!  Deborah