rounded corners + a giveaway!

 

This weekend I fell in love with rounded corners and bias binding. I typically avoid bias binding in my quilts---straight-grain binding is so easy to cut and creates little waste---but while taking Tara Rebman's Quilt-As-You-Go Patchwork Bags class on Craftsy, I was inspired to branch out.

The kind folks over at Craftsy (an online video classroom specializing in a variety of crafts including quilting) recently gifted me a spot in Tara's class. I always learn new skills best by watching someone else demonstrate them first, so I found that Craftsy's video platform worked well with my learning style. In the class's first lesson, Tara walks you through the steps of the quilt-as-you-go technique, in preparation for creating a bag, which is how I came to make my scrappy potholder with rounded corners.

The quilt-as-you-go technique was a lot of fun to try, and I love how it uses up scraps of all shapes and sizes. I'm already brainstorming ways to use the technique on zipper pouches and pillows.

 

Thanks to the class, I'm also already thinking about ways to incorporate rounded corners into the quilts I'm currently working on for my shop. I think they add such a nice touch to a project. (Jolene over at Blue Elephant Stitches often incorporates rounded corners into her quilts---like this one---which I love!)

And now for the exciting part: Craftsy has offered to give one of my readers a spot in the class as well! To enter, simply head on over to Craftsy and sign up for an account right here. If you already have an account, you can simply log in here to enter. A winner will be drawn on Wednesday, July 31. Good luck!

Update 8/1/13: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Sarah!

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.

embroidery project: potholder

Last summer, I made my grandmother an embroidered potholder for her July birthday using this tutorial by Maggie Makes. (These pictures were taken last summer in Vermont, hence the bright sunshine and green grass in the background. Sadly, Maryland looks nothing like this right now.)

The potholder is lined with ThinsulBrite and embroidered with variegated floss I found at a thrift store in Austin before we moved. I love how the potholder turned out so much that I'm currently putting together another one for myself.