Orphan Block Potholders

Making new potholders usually falls into my schedule in the January time frame when all the organize, renew, and refresh vibe is going around. It's okay that I did not get to this until November. My poor old potholders from two years ago got a real workout. There were holes and a few good burns on them.

These orphan blocks came from a fun quilt I made for my son during the brief period of time he was interested in learning to play the electric bass guitar. And it made for a great shop sample back in the day as well.

I love the colors and had a bit of fun with the quilting, making each one different.

They all have the same backing, a classic fabric by Kaffe Fassett.

Here's how I layer everything for one pot holder:

• Fabric for the top
• ThermaFlec
• Batting
• ThermaFlec
• Fabric for the bottom 

Sometimes I'll even do two layers of batting, but not this time.

I have one more project coming before the end of the year. I've been much more focused on family this year and have been spending my creative energy making art that doesn't require me to go off to another room to create.

I hope you all have been sewing and creating up a storm this holiday season and are enjoying all the special people in your lives, too.

From Crummy to Playing with Crumbs - A Potholder Gift

First, the crummy part. We had a little bit of drama this week. While we were out running errands, our van decided that it liked going backwards but not going forwards. The kids didn't think it was a good idea to drive backwards all the way home, so we called a tow truck. We also called one of Erica's friends for a rescue ride home. Her friend, Alyson, was at work and couldn't help, but Alyson's mom was home and graciously saved the day. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I had not just purchased a full load of groceries. There are lots of positives to think about. We're fine; the van is fine; it's all good. The van has over 170,000 miles on it so a little trouble every now and then is to be expected. I'm hoping it will hold together for another 30,000 miles or so.

Now to the "crumby" part of the story. I wanted to make a little thank you something for Alyson's mom. I've been saving fabric scraps for a while now but haven't really done anything much with them so that is where I started.

I dumped out the jar with crumbs. Crumbs are those little pieces that many people would consider trash, but there is a segment of the quilting population (yep, that's me) that thinks that all fabric has a purpose, even tiny pieces that look like trash.

I raked through the pile for a bit to see what I had to work with, then started pulling out all the black, white, and red pieces.

 Next, I cut a 9.5" square from muslin to use as a foundation. Then I started sewing pieces on.

Once I had used most of the pieces that had been pulled out and pressed, I squared up the block to 7".

It looks like a wonky log cabin block. I had enough high heel fabric in my stash to use for the back. I added two layers of Therm-a-Flec for heat resistance and put a piece of batting between them.

I used these small binding clips to hold it all together for quilting. I've been wanting to try quilting a spiral so this was a great project to try that on.

Getting started in the center was tricky, but once a few rounds were done, it was easy quilting. The binding is machine sewn and is a solid black from my stash, probably a Kona.

It's even kinda cute from the back. I think this will be a perfect thank you for a sweet mom. The crumbs had intimidated me for a while, so I'm happy, too, that this was an opportunity to put them to good use. It might be time to make a few new potholders!