Some simple crafting

Here are a couple of crafty things I've done lately. Both are very simple, even "rustic", as my husband often describes his crafty efforts, but they are things that have been on my list for awhile and I'm pleased to have finished them.

A few weeks ago I mentioned making some towel mats to go behind our drippy (from condensation due to humidity) toilets. I was adapting an idea for a bath mat I'd seen on a blog. The project uses an old towel and cotton fabric. The original also suggested some sort of embellishment to pretty it up. For my first one, I used a small old candlewicking project that had languished unfinished for years.


For this one, I used part of one of those narrow calendar towels I had thought too pretty to throw away. I am hoping to make a couple more of these so I can have a fresh one ready at all times. I have some ideas for recycled embellishments for those, too. Please don't judge my sewing skills by this project; they are limited, but not this much. It's just that the 2 layers of bath towel in this make it very hard to maneuver around under the needle.

Now, here are some summer hot pads. These have been on my list for ages but I hadn't made them because I didn't have any specifically summery fabric. Then I got looking through my stash and found this sunflower fabric. The blue checked one in the front is a remnant from something my daughter made, I think.

The other fabric (the back 3 hot pads) is recycled. Someone had given me a bunch of crafting odds and ends. This sunflower fabric was on one side of some sort of sewed item. I have no idea what it was supposed to be -- maybe a table runner, maybe an attempt at a baby sling? It was odd, anyway, and the other side of the item was a bright print of colored frogs on a blue background. Anyway, I unstitched it and washed both fabrics to reuse. I thought the sunflowers worked quite well for summer hot pads.

Those are my simple craft projects from this week. I am so thankful to God for the gift of creativity.