replacement potholders

These are particularly horrible. And I'm embarrassed to think about how long they have looked this bad. I did buy them new, so once upon a time they were spiffy.

Better? I salvaged the rings off the old ones and used a combo of house fabric scraps and some Insulbrite I got at -- you guessed it -- M & L. I told Bill that we can never move away from here because I don't know what I would do without M & L. Judging by one of the bloggers I like to read (Dana at MADE), who is from Orange County and now lives in Texas, what I would do is come back here to shop!

These guys turned out pretty cute -- we'll have to leave it for a cooler day to test them out, though!

pink and brown quilt

No name on this one -- just a pink and brown half-square-triangle quilt. I bought a few matching fabrics that I found in the sale section in the back of M & L (buying quarter yards of all the high-end quilting cottons in the back of M & L is my new hobby -- about 70 cents per cut, baby!) I added some other patterns from previous shopping expeditions and some solids left over from the graduation quilts seen here and here. The size is kind of a small lap or large baby -- 40 X 46.

I mixed the lighter background patterns with the solids and put the white with the darker  patterns. One happy accident is the way the diagonals of prints and solids lined up.

I quilted on either side of the seams around the squares and down the diagonals of each square. You can see that my ditch-stitching could use a little work! Actually all the quilting on this one gave me a pile of trouble. I finally figured out a way to adjust the needle position so that I could chart an easier path with the presser foot, and then the diagonals went a little easier. I bound with this hot pink dot seen previously in the rainbow sherbet quilt, though I did have to go buy some more -- not enough left over. 

I'm really happy with the back of this one. Almost got those horizontals straight! These were all the coordinating prints, so it's nice to see them together.

This quilt has no planned home, so maybe someday I'll sell it. Where? Who knows?

vintage modern christmas

I finished this quilt a few weeks ago. I adapted the pattern from a few brick-style quilts I'd seen online, particularly this one by Rachel at Stitched in Color. The top went together quite quickly and I like the non-traditional colors for Christmas.

I started with this vintage mod-style street scene and then added in some fabrics that went along -- some I already had, some bargains, and some splurges. (It's easier to splurge when you only need quarter yards!) I like the way both the blue and green look like snow in their own way.

I got the brainstorm to quilt in this chicken-wire pattern when I saw it on some blog about patterns you can do with a just a walking foot. Ok, you can do this, but WHY??? I got about a quarter through before I decided this was no fun at all. But by then I was committed. In the end I think it turned out fine but way more trouble than it was worth. I'm sticking with straight lines for a while.

Here's the back -- this photo really shows off the crinkliness in a nice way. Just some scraps of the fabrics from the front and bound in a solid black.

It's been hanging in front of the fireplace since I finished it, but now I'm ready to pack it up and surprise myself with it in December!