pot holders

I have been wanting to make fun pot holders for a relative (that desperately needs new pot holders) but most of the tutorials involved some kind of binding...and I still don't know if I have recovered from all the binding in my first quilt.  So then I stumbled upon this great photo here: cloud 9 fabrics, which led to the tutorial here: craftzine.  Simple to make, a good way to use scrap pieces of fabric, and an easy way to brighten up a kitchen!

clutch #1

A few weeks ago, my mom, sister, and I went to City Craft in Dallas, and I found this great Echo fabric.  Actually, I found tons of great fabrics, but I tried to show restraint - we were supposed to be Christmas shopping for the rest of the family.  I am going to be creating several versions of a small clutch that I can use to carry my iphone, keys, an id and credit card, and a lip balm.  I was inspired by the clutch on the blog cakies, but had a little trouble following the instructions so I designed my own pattern.