Ottie's Mat

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Mine has been quiet and uneventful. I live alone in the Colorado mountains and my family lives in Kansas City, so I just stayed home and relaxed. I am taking some time off work, though, to get away from the grind and hopefully get some things done around the house. I have gotten some work done on my projects, so that's good. And Lance is getting some nice walks!

My first project was a mat that I made for my brother-in-law, Ottie. He was just diagnosed with lymphoma and has a bunch of swollen lymph nodes in his abdomen that are making it hard for him to breathe. My sister said that he often kneels by the bed to ease his breathing, but the carpet is making his knees raw. She wondered if I could make something that would be soft on his knees, but wouldn't slip around or scrunch up. I was thrilled that she had found a way that I could feel like I was helping out, even if it is in just a small way! My first thought was to make a flannel mini-quilt. I could sew some of that gridded rubber stuff that you put under a rug to keep it from slipping on the bottom to keep it in place. I could also use some stiff stabilizer to keep it from scrunching up. I thought I could use some high-loft polyester batting to comfortably pad his knees. She asked for this on the Friday before Christmas, so I wanted to get it made and into the mail as soon as possible since I knew it would take a while to make its way to KC. With these things in mind, I started looking at my supplies. I found some really nice flannel that my mom had given to me years ago. It was really soft and thick so it shouldn't wear out quickly. For the backing, I found some nice microsuede that I thought would hold the mat in place on the carpet. I also found some high-loft batting that I use for trapunto:

and a very stiff fusible stabilizer that is stiff enough for things like ball cap bills:

When I described what I thought would work, my sister asked me to make it 24"x36". I was happy to get some guidance since I wasn't sure what would be best!

To start, I had to figure out how to cut everything. The flannel and batting are pretty unstable and stretch pretty easily in all directions. So I decided to start with the microsuede. I cut it approximately 26" by 38" since the size didn't have to be exact and I wanted plenty of extra for the seam allowances. The microsuede was a little hard to cut because I couldn't fold it over so I could make the cuts in one motion. Instead, I had to make part of the cut, then move the fabric and the ruler and make the rest of the cut, trying to keep everything straight in the process. It actually came out pretty good! I tackled the stabilizer next. I had both fusible and sew-in versions of the stiff stabilizer. Because the stabilizer wasn't wide enough to be able to cut it as a single piece, I decided that it would be easier to use the fusible version of the stabilizer. I've used an iron on the microsuede when making bags with it, so I felt pretty sure that I wouldn't ruin the microsuede with the iron. I wasn't sure if the stabilizer would stick to the microsuede, but it worked like a charm. I used a damp pressing cloth, like the instructions said, and fused two pieces of over-sized stabilizer to the back of the microsuede, then trimmed everything to the edge of the microsuede. I overlapped the pieces of stabilizer by a couple of inches in the middle because I didn't want the mat to fold over on itself or be unstable in the center.

Next, I tackled the batting. I decided to use 2 layers of batting to get the padding level that felt right to me. I laid out the 2 layers of batting and put the microsuede on top with the wrong side of the microsuede against the batting. I first did a rough cut around the edges, making the batting slightly bigger than the microsuede. I used the large Clover magic clips to hold everything together, and I basted around the edges of the microsuede to keep the layers together:

I couldn't really get a long basting stitch because the feed dogs didn't move the batting very well, but it still worked. With the layers basted together, I could now use the rotary cutter to trim the batting to the edges of the microsuede:

Now it was time to deal with the flannel. Just like I did with the batting, I cut the flannel a little larger than the microsuede, used the magic clips to hold the layers together, basted around the edges and trimmed the excess flannel. I sewed them together with the right side of the flannel facing the right side of the microsuede because I decided that I wanted to have a clean edge without a binding. I knew it was going to be hard to turn everything right side out, but I decided that this was what I wanted to do.

With everything basted together, I was ready to do the real sewing. I wanted to do rounded edges, so I drew the sewing lines on the back of the flannel with an air-soluable marker, rounding the corners with a bowl:

I sewed around this line, leaving about 18" open for turning. I trimmed the corners with my pinking shears to reduce the bulk there:

I used a seam ripper to remove the basting stitches where I left the opening for turning, then turned the mat right side out. It was quite a job turning it right side out with the stiff stabilizer, but I think it was still easier than putting on a binding and it gave a cleaner edge. I edge-stitched about 1/8" from the edge around the perimeter of the mat to close the opening that I'd used for turning and to keep the edges in place. Then, I sewed around the perimeter again, about 2.5" to 3" (I don't remember what I used) to keep the batting from shifting through time. Here's how the top of the mat looks:

And here's the back:

I really like how it turned out and hope that it meets Ottie's needs! I boxed it up and got it in the mail on the following Monday morning. I couldn't fold the mat because of the stabilizer, so I had to roll it up and put it in a fairly large box. Hopefully, it gets to them some time soon! According to the tracking, it went from my post office to Las Vegas, where it arrived and then departed again on the 24th. Since then it's been in "In Transit" limbo so I have no idea where it is or when it'll arrive. But the post office usually ends up coming through so maybe it'll arrive tomorrow.....

The other project that I've made good progress on is my advent calendar shawl project, the Tidings to Yew shawl designed by Amy Gunderson. If you remember from my last post, this project comes packaged in 24 little bags that you use as an advent calendar. Each day you get either a little ball of yarn to complete that day's portion of the project, or a little surprise. I did end up getting a little behind, but was able to finish the project over the weekend:

The knitting is finished and the ends are woven in, but I still need to block it and then trim the ends. This project was designed as a shawl, but I'm going to block it thinner to make a scarf since I'll find that more useful. I might use some of the left-over yarn (there's a LOT of leftovers) to make fringe. I'm still deciding on that.

I've also made progress on my I See Spring sweater designed by Joji Locatelli. It's actually starting to look like a sweater now!

All of the hard work is done, and now I can just sit and knit without thinking. Since I find the sleeves tedious (knitting narrow circles is harder than knitting the big circle around my belly), I'll probably knit until the end of my current skein of yarn, then attach the sleeves before finishing the bottom. That way I get the tedious knitting out of the way as early as possible.

Finally, I've also made good progress on my cross-stitch project. Cross-stitch takes a lot of time, but I love seeing the picture emerge as I go along!

The top part is all done, including the backstitching which has to be done after the cross-stitching. Now I'm concentrating on the middle. I'm over half way done at this point, so that feels good!

Nancy