Potholders for Swap

I am taking part in my first organized swap as part of the Bee a {Modern} Swapper group. You'll remember that I made my March bee blocks for this same group.

My partner said she liked neutrals with blue, green, brown, grey and mustard yellow. And she mentioned she like Heather Bailey. So, Nicey Jane it was!

I had this folded star potholder bookmarked for a while, so I thought it was finally time to try it out. My center star isn't as crisp as I'd like and the star itself could be flatter but all-in-all, I am still pleased with how it turned out. (I always have to fight the urge to point out every major flaw in everything I make. When I'm giving gifts, I usually fail and say something like, 'I made this for you, but look how crooked that stitching is and that binding is terrible and I wish I had done this or that...')

I wish I had flipped my binding the other direction, because the back looks nicer than the front, but I never like the bindings I produce. (There I go again!) C'est la vie. I just used one square of cotton batting with this one because the folds of the star make it pretty thick, already. So, I figured it didn't need the insul-brite.

For my second potholder, I was going to give my partner a crazy blue, green improv one, but then I decided it might be too out there, given the star one. And my improv curves got a bit puckered. So I just did a simple block with more Nicey Jane and so, it's more matchy with the other one.

I quilted the heck out of it and as a result, it got stretched a bit, so it doesn't lie as flat as I would prefer. But it's a potholder, so hopefully it will be held flat by a heavy pot! I intended to give this one a loop, too, but typically I started my binding in the wrong corner and so, the flowers would have been hanging upside down, so I clipped the loop. This one has insul-brite and one square of cotton batting.

Hope you like these, partner!