When I saw this weeks Iron Craft Challenge – Get Cozy I knew that if I could find the time I would participate. I’ve seen coffee cozies everywhere – I’ve even bought one for myself – but I hadn’t played around with making them.

I thought about how to put a ‘twist’ on my cozy, and I finally decided to go with the orphan block route. Orphan blocks are quilt blocks that either didn’t work as planned for the quilt, or an extra one that ended up not being necessary for that particular quilt. Because it’s hard to throw good things away, quilters tend to get piles of these blocks. The big question is – what to do with them? In the past I have made table runners out of mine and even some cute ‘Orphan’ Owls. I thought some of the smaller, skinnier ones I had around would make perfect cozies! Here’s what I came up with:

Here’s the first of my Americana series. I had a long pieced strip of blue, red, and beige that I’m guessing was going to be a border at one point. My cozy pattern fit just perfectly. To add an extra touch, I used beautiful beads I purchased from TessaAnn.

The second Americana cozy I created (it was a really long strip…I could probably make 3 or 4 more of these style yet…) I also probably went a bit overboard with the ‘insulation’ of the cozy. I used a layer of insul-bright insulation between the quilt block and the flannel back. With this, if you were in a jam and couldn’t find a pot holder, you could use your coffee cozy! I’m thinking this was probably a bit unnecessary…Here’s a more muted, rustic coffee cozy using scraps of Geese in the Field Blocks.

And here’s the cozy I’m going to enter as my piece for the challenge – my

Purple and White Pinwheel Quilt Orphan Block with a Ruffle Coffee Cozy. I made the ruffle while experimenting with my new ruffler foot and it seemed to go perfectly with these orphan blocks. I just couldn’t resist!

I’m excited to see what next week’s challenge is! I love how inspiring they have all been!

To see the other cozies created check out the flickr pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1525156@N25/pool/