purple color wheel mini quilt

Not long after posting about the mini color wheel quilt top I started for September's LMP+QG challenge (which I opted to create using only shades of purple), I managed to quilt it, bind it and mail it to one of my good friends (who loves the color purple) for her October birthday.

I opted to hand quilt the piece, using purple floss in the wedges and white floss in the inner and outer borders.

For the backing, I chose a Japanese print I've had in my stash for years.

And for the binding, I used an Anna Maria Horner print, which was leftover from this quilt that I made in 2011.

I was smitten with the finished wall hanging (I love the look of monochromatic scraps!), and so happy to gift it to a good friend.

gingham quilt

When Amanda Jean posted an in-progress shot of her gingham quilt back in 2010, I knew I had to make my own. Fast forward to last fall, to right before we moved into a new house, when I finally did. Using remnants from my stash (including scraps from our gray wedding day tablecloths), I made a mini version to hang above our bed.

I backed it with a cute Lizzy House print, hand quilted it using gray perle cotton, and bound it with a mini yellow gingham.

Though it's simple in design, and came together really quickly, it is one of my favorite quilts to date!

potholder swap: what i sent

So my dear blogging friend Adaiha and I recently decided it was time for another swap. (We've done a few successful crafty swaps in the past.) This time, we decided to swap potholders. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity for me to use up some of my scraps (I love scrap-busting projects!) and practice the English paper-piecing skills I picked up in a hand-quilting class I took at Spool in Philadelphia a few months ago. So using little one-inch hexagons, I made Adaiha a blue and green potholder, lined with thermal fleece. 

I then used this tutorial to assemble the back of the potholder. Everything was completely hand sewn---a first for me in a very long time!---and I was really pleased with the results.