Max got another pair of quick change trousers -

(side 1, with the great Lotta Ruta print paired with some Flea Market Fancy)

(and side 2, with Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet in yellow and a bit of Lotta Moira.)

{Oh, and for those of you who asked about the pattern for Max’s sweater – it came from an old knitting book of my grandmother’s. My mom thinks it may be a Spinnerin pattern. Unfortunately the only info on the pattern is Baby Pullover #17. A quick google search didn’t come up with anything for me, but I’ll keep looking.}

His pants match the Tova dress I made for myself out of the same print (mother & son matching outfits? hmm.. ) I chopped off some of the sleeve length to make this a summery short sleeved version. Not so appropriate for right now, but luckily we’re taking a little trip to Florida this winter, so I think this will be perfect. (and yes, the sleeves should be just a bit shorter – I guessed, and guessed wrong!)

Oh, and then I couldn’t resist making up another pair of quick change trousers for Max’s cousin, Aidan. I went with the Lotta Ruta in navy paired with a little Cake Rock Beach, with Echino panthers on the reverse.

I used a few of the scraps to make up some string blocks which became these two potholders — a very belated gift for a dear friend. And oops, she hasn’t seen them yet, so I guess I spoiled the surprise. (but after all this time, is it a surprise anyway?)

And lastly, not pictured, because I couldn’t really photograph it, a new crib sheet for Max’s travel crib. I’m kind of jealous, because I’d love to have sheets for our bed out of any of these prints!

So there you have it – lots of lotta! (and I’m not even over it yet, so you’ll probably see it popping up in a few other projects!) How about you? Have you used any of this line in any projects?

A little while back Kate posted an absolutely gorgeous baby cardigan. Lately I’ve been obsessed with cute little items that are knit and/or crocheted for babies – there’s something so sweet about babies in handmade sweaters. I know how to knit, though my skills are lacking, but for some reason I’ve never learned how to crochet. But now Kate, and all her gorgeous crocheted things, has me wanting to learn. Lessons from YouTube, perhaps…

Anyway, not too long after leaving a comment on Kate’s post, she generously offered to make up one of these wonderful little cardigans for the new baby. It arrived recently, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this one – it’s made of the most gorgeously soft yarn in this perfect blue color with fabulous little buttons. I just can’t wait to see the new baby in this sweater!! Thank you so much Kate! This one will be treasured forever.

In return, I made up a few household goods for Kate. I spent some time browsing her flickr photostream and favorites and noticed lots of projects in shades of blues, which I’m hoping means it’s a favorite color. I pulled out a few of my favorites and chopped them up into tiny squares. I noticed Kate had favorited several plus quilts, so I went with a tiny plus design on a couple potholders.

I used the remaining printed squares to make up a few coordinating napkins. These are loosely based on the napkin tutorial I wrote up for Sew Mama Sew a while back. I hope these will make a nice addition to Kate’s home!

It seems I may be in a bit of a potholder-making craze. I’m not entirely sure why, other than the fact that I find them fun to make, and a good way to make up different improv blocks without having to commit to an entire quilt (I have too many quilts that need finishing!)

After making my holiday themed potholders recently, I decided to do a series of Flea Market Fancy potholders, using just a couple colors for each pair of potholders.

They each have a unique improv-style block for the front, and a corresponding FMF backing, each bound in a solid brown.

And even though we’re in need of some updated fresh, clean potholders, I’m listing these in the shop instead, since I can’t pick a favorite! I figure whatever doesn’t sell can be the ones we keep!

(please note that I’m using a new shop — hopefully it will all work as it should, but certainly do let me know if you run into any problems!)

I don’t know… It feels a bit early to pull out the red and green fabrics since we only just got past Halloween, but then yesterday I noticed that the stores already have their Christmas candy on the shelves, so maybe the time is just right!

The other day I had an urge to sew with a little red and green, so I decided to go for a smaller project – namely these fun potholders. I don’t own any actual Christmas themed fabric, but I do have lots of red and green fabrics, and I kind of think it’s fun to use these to give a Christmas-y look.

I paired the red and green with some chocolate brown and made up a few string block potholders and a couple that feature improv blocks. Each are paired and have a matching backing fabric, along with a cute matching hanging tag.

They each measure about 8 1/2″ square and use one layer of Insul-Brite and one layer of cotton batting.

The string block sets are listed in the shop (sold, thank you!) in case you’re planning ahead and looking for a little holiday gift!

I won’t say this is the most organized way of storing scraps, but I think it’s kind of fun, and it allows me to combine my love of old containers, particularly old enamelware, with my love of fabric.

I’m particularly fond of the enamel lidded pots (lids are good so no one can see how many scraps I have! oh, and they keep out dust… also good). I keep wondering if they ever made these pots in other fun colors – turquoise, or pink, maybe? I have a small pink enamel saucepan, but typically I only see the larger stock pots in white. I’ll keep searching!

The old egg basket was a recent gift – thanks again Phiona! – I love the size of it, and even though my scraps try to escape through the sides sometimes, I still think it’s a fabulous spot for storing fabric!

I keep them all under my sewing table so they’re out of the way, but still easily accessible when I need to grab some scraps!

So tell me, how do you store your scraps?

And speaking of scraps, I pulled out some favorites the other day to make up a couple cute potholders. (String block tutorial can be found here)

(love the selvage as cute hanging tags!)

One’s headed to Chris, who gifted me a gorgeous potholder made of Flea Market Fancy hexagons, and one’s going to Cindy, who made me this absolutely fantastic pincushion out of selvages I sent to her (Cindy also sells her selvage pincushions here). Thank you both!

Now I just need to get myself some cute pins! Anyone have any favorites?

I used two of the prints to make a couple new sets. Each is backed with flour sack towels, and paired with a little vintage cotton rick rack around the edges.

In our kitchen these towels do a double duty. Sometimes they act as hand towels, hanging on the over door (and adding a little color!)-

and sometimes they end up over here in this spot next to the sink where we pile the just-washed dishes. This size fits there pretty perfectly, and I like seeing something pretty while doing a chore I dislike!

And then, since I had already been working on some Tufted Tweets hexagons, I kept on with the kitchen theme and turned them into a couple cute potholders.

I hope Laurie likes Tufted Tweets in her kitchen too, because these potholders will soon be headed her way. It seems only appropriate, since they have her name on them!

___

Notes:

You can find a tutorial for rick rack napkins here. The dishtowels are made exactly the same – just larger! Mine measure about 20″ x 24″, but you could make them whatever size works best for you!

For the potholders, I used 1 layer of Insul-brite and 1 layer of cotton batting

A few new market bags for a local shop -

And the start of a new quilt -

Many many thanks to Julie and Joree for sending me some of the wonderful paint-by-number bird fabric. I’ve been hoarding it for a while, but now, in my attempt to actually use my favorite fabrics, I cut into them for this new quilt. I’m doing some more improv blocks and each center will feature one of the birds in one of the three colors. I really like each block individually, though I’m a bit concerned about how they’ll all work together in a quilt. We shall see!

Now on to the giveaway… I put together a package for one lucky winner. You’ll receive two handmade potholders (my two favorites, in orange and green)

As well as a set of handmade napkins… I haven’t made these in a while, but if you look way back in my posts (like here), you’ll see that I was really obsessed with napkins and especially vintage cotton rick rack. This is a set of 6, made out of two coordinating pink Jennifer Paganelli fabrics with some nice gray cotton rick rack.

I’ve also included two reusable produce bags. I posted about these here. I use my set all the time for veggies, but when I sent some to a friend of mine, she said they were too nice for produce and decided to store her jewelry in them instead. So I guess it’s up to you what you end up doing with them…

And lastly, simply because I love fabric scraps, you’ll win the fabrics seen below (the 2nd photo shows the same fabrics, just stacked instead). These are smallish pieces, but would be good to incorporate into a variety of scrap projects (like those potholders or towels) or even to include in a scrap quilt.

Now for the rules – simply leave a comment telling me what kind of handmade gifts you’ll be making for the holidays (or handmade gifts you’d like to receive!) What do you think is a great handmade gift idea? (even if it’s not something you’re actually going to make!)

Want a few extra entries? Post about this giveaway on your own blog and you’ll get 5 extra entries. Please just provide a link to your posting when you leave your comment.

This contest is open to everyone (yes, even my family members!) I’ll pick a winner on Sunday and will post the winner on Monday.

We’ve been using some very old potholders for a long time now. In reality, they were never meant to be potholders. They were actually used as examples of quilts you could order from a local store. While they did have batting between two pieces of fabric, they really weren’t very useful as potholders – thin batting led to hot hands when pulling something out of the oven!

In any case, I’m not sure why it took me so long to make new ones. For these I continued with the rainbow hues and pulled several fabrics of one color for each potholder. I made quick log cabin blocks for each front, a piece of corresponding fabric for the backing and whatever leftover fabric for binding.

This was a good project for using up fabric scraps, and also a great way to use up my leftover batting. Each time I make a quilt I’m left with strips of batting – not large enough for another quilt, but large enough that I don’t feel I can throw it away. I used two layers of batting for each potholder and did some simple straight quilting on each.

And I’m pleased to report… no burnt hands!