"Midas the Mouse and his Sunflower Garden"

As an Island Batik Brand Ambassador, I receive fabrics and sewing notions from Island Batik and their corporate sponsors (Oliso, Schmetz, Aurifil, Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Designs, Hobbs Batting, Accu-Quilt, Funky Friends Factory, By-Annie Patterns and Lumin Fabrics.)

August is the Hot Stuff challenge and the Island Batik Ambassadors have to decorate their Oliso mini-iron carry bags. I've always thought the front of my carry bag looked like a mouse, so that's the theme I was going for.

But what to put on the rest of the carry bag? I do have a few favorite flowers, like sunflowers, irises, black-eyed Susans and roses. My neighbor has sunflowers growing in his front yard that are beautiful. Sunflowers it is! I needed to find some small, brown beads, which was difficult. I went to Penny Linn the needlepoint store and found some seed beeds in the color of tiger by Sundance. For fabrics I chose, Island Batik Pebbles Coffee, Honey, Bubblegum, Ice and Green Lemongrass. I used Aurifil brown 50 weight thread and Schmetz 70/10 microtex needles. I purchased the eye and nose buttons at Pins and Needles in Mount Kisco, NY.

First, I cut petals. Next, I drew circles on interfacing and sewed the circles to the pebbles coffee fabric. Then, I cut a little slit in the interfacing and turned the circle right side out. I arranged the petals in a circle and placed a brown circle on top. I used the Aurifil brown thread to sew around the circle and the petals. Next, I used bead thread and sewed the beads on all seven sunflowers.

For the leaves, I used a thicker interfacing and my purple thang to bring over the edges, as if I were doing applique. Then, I cut a piece of backing for each leaf and glued it on the back side. I made the ears in the same manner.

I was ready to dress up Midas. I hand sewed the eyes and nose on. Next, I used a hot glue gun to adhere the sunflowers, leaves and ears onto my iron carrier. We can't forget his tongue and tail! Midas was all done and ready for Millie, my Oliso MP3 Pro mini iron. Midas turned out so cute and I love just being able to be creative and bring my ideas to fruition.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the mini-iron carry bags made by my fellow ambassadors, because they are all so cute!

• Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

• Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting

• Tina Dillard ~ Quilting Affection Designs

• Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany

• Kimberly Flannagan ~ Kimberly’s Quilts

• Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

• Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

• Kim Jamieson-Hirst ~ Chatterbox Quilts

• Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

• Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt

• Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River

• Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

• Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery

• Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

• Susan Michaels ~ Dragonfly Fiberart

• Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

• Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique

• Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

• Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color

• Solomae Stoycoff ~ Cuddle Cat Quiltworks

• Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations