Homemade Potholders and A Birthday

I was putting my Christmas decorations away the other night and I realized that I do not have any homemade Christmas potholders and if I don't have any, that means my daughter does not have any.  That made me sad.  That's a situation I had to fix.  Pulling out my stack of cute Christmas fabric, some cotton batting scraps, and insul-brite I started making potholders.

I made these with just a solid piece of fabric on the front (one of them is scrappy) and the back to show off the cute fabric.  To made a decent potholder I add three layers in between the fabric.  I use one layer of cotton batting, then  a layer of insul-brite and then another layer of cotton batting.  That makes a pretty thick sturdy potholder.  I do a simple cross hatch quilting through all layers to get it ready to bind.

This weekend I'll be piecing Christmas tree mug rugs to make more potholders.  Of course, I am sharing all of these with dear daughter.  

Here is a link to the youtube video on how I bind my potholders:  Youtube video on how to bind potholders.  

I had a birthday yesterday.  Another year older.  I made myself a rum cake to celebrate.  Dear daughter came to the house after work to have cake with me and give me fun gifts.  She did a good job with gifts this year.  So clever.  

I splurged and bought myself a quilting gift.  I bought  "Vintage Christmas Book" by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet for It's Sew Emma.  This past fall this book was very popular because everyone was making the quilt Bringing Home the Christmas Tree (a car/SUV with a tree on the roof) that is in the book.  I fell in love with that pattern after seeing it all over.  I won't be making a full size quilt from the pattern just yet.  Right now I just want to make a car block and the standing tree blocks for a wallhanging/table runner.  It's too cute.