More Potholders

Our friends in San Antonio love palm trees. They have palm trees around their pond and pool and palm tree motifs in their home. I found this Palm Tree Quilted Potholder here and thought it would be perfect for their kitchen. My math skills did not work very well when converting this to an 8 1/2 inch block. I finally "winged" it and progressed one row at a time by "trial and error." I lost count of how many first rows I attempted (with scraps) before hitting the magic numbers. To complete the set, I purchased two kitchen towels and edged one end with the same fabric as the binding on the potholders.

 

 

 

 

Texas Wildflower Table Accessories

My husband's brother and his wife live in Oregon. They come to Texas often to visit and love the Hill Country and Texas wildflowers.  I made a Texas Wildflower Table Topper, hot pads, and coasters for them. The table topper is from the "Twister" pattern by Ursula Riegel. It can be purchased here. The coasters were designed from a tutorial I found on Martha Stewart's website. This was excerpted from "Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts" by Joelle Hoverson. And, of course, I made this set for myself also.

 

Hot Pads

Coasters

I decided that potholders would be a good place to practice free motion quilting. However, the stress of practicing on a Christmas deadline was too much. I basically left my machine at its regular setting and moved the potholder around. I can only describe the design as "random." I now have even greater respect for those who do an entire quilt using free motion. The center panel is part of the "Orchard Bloom" collection by Timeless Treasure Fabrics.