Whiteley Creek Homestead

 
Yesterday morning as I was opening my pantry to get some steel cut oats, dates, pecans, and rice milk to cook a bowl of cereal for Dick and I, my eyes were drawn to my baking center where the KitchenAid Mixer stands. I decided the mixer needed a cover worthy of its important role in my life. It works virtually every day for me. During breakfast I envisioned an embroidered cupcake outline on a linen kitchen towel, but a cupcake needs to look like a party… a celebration… with vibrant happy colors. My plan took a detour and I set to work on an applique instead to give it a "Look at me!" attitude. I cut off the towel's prexisting border because it was outdated and replaced it with the zigzag border instead. It looks like I spent painstaking hours sewing on rows of rickrack but it's a scrap of fabric I had spied in the bargain remants bin at Joann Fabrics a few weeks back. It was folded up neatly in a corner of my sewing room waiting for its day in the spotlight. If you haven't appliqued before, or it's been a long time and your remembrance of the technique has grown fuzzy, here's a tutorial that breaks the process down into easily understandable steps.