This is my entry in Donna’s Annual Lovely Ugly Challenge 2026.

The potholders are 8″ square. The 4″ star blocks were fun to make. (There are a number of tutorials out there.) I could make an entire quilt of them, I think. But, not right now.

FOLLOW UP on August 29: I won a prize! Thanks to you. The Lovely Ugly Challenge 2026 RESULTS!! – Delightful Designs I appreciate your votes and kindness.

How about a set of potholders? Yes, I seem to be stuck on potholders right now, but they really are fun.

This hockey fabric must have been very popular, because there were pieces in multiple scrap bags. Match on!

The Scrappy Sampler top (my version) is at the quilters. Hope to have it to share soon. In the meantime, I made a pair of potholders (slightly different sizes, due to quilt math).

It is a great way to use up small pieces, units or even entire blocks at the end of a quilt.

I've been making these potholders for about 15 years, but I haven't made any in a while. Credit goes to Deanna at Wedding Dress Blue where I first saw her tutorial in 2011. String Pieced Potholders. I've made probably 50 sets since then and I still have folks tell me how much they love them on a regular basis. Potholders are not a big deal, but I guess you really do use them daily and it's kind

I had a good two-mile walk at Pine Dunes Forest Preserve.  At the end, when I saw the car in the parking lot, I had a startlingly clear vision of Stevens half-opening the car door and waving his cane to greet me, with a big smile on his face.  (I hope those clear visions will continue for a long time.)

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I love making potholders. Small, satisfying, and useful.

Here is a batch of three I finished this weekend for my own kitchen. I recently did a deep-ish clean on the place, and it wanted some brightening up. The old ones were tired. Looking back, I made them in 2016. See them HERE. Time flies…

Again, a small piece of fun fabric wanted to have purpose.

I dug through my tin of 2-1/2″ squares looking for matches, and the leftover bindings bin, too.

Small projects are nice from time to time, coming together quickly and making something useful to go live with Daughter and family soon.

Our goldfinches have been here about twice a day lately for easy meals. The whole flock stops by at once and it is fun to watch them vie for position and argue with each other. Here, nine of them are on the feeder at once.

Then, there were four more on the ground in this photo, plus a few more to the right of the photo range.

A male Eastern Towhee came by to pick at what the other birds let fall from the feeder. They prefer to eat off the ground.

In the garden, the larger of the squashes ...

I've been enjoying some time in my sewing room over the past week, but after working on 3 blue-green quilts, I found myself left with a colossal, jumbled mess and I needed to set things to rights before I could move forward.After making 3 pretty good-sized quilts, you would think there would be a noticeable space in my bins, but I have yet to find it. I will admit to adding a few new pieces -

I made several scrappy potholders for the May Table Scraps Challenge. The colours were hunter green and sage and the theme was squares.

Finding the perfect pattern

On Mondays, I usually link up my latest post to Beth's Monday Making linking party. Last week, I fell in love with her Chevron Potholders. I watched her video and then decided that I would make a couple of them in green. 

These are my first two. There is lots of green in them, and some of those greens are sage or forest

 What can this be?  Surely, not a quilt project!  I'm trying to get so many different "jobs" done, and have been unsuccessful at checking them off my "to do" list - seems like everything is NOT done, yet these  homemade butterhorn rolls are done and delicious!  

I am bringing the rolls (not a single burned one!) to dinner with friends.  The pot holders will live in her house now.  

Hello, friends! I’m stopping in today with a String Block Quilted Potholder Tutorial that is fast enough to make in time to use for gifts for the holidays. I made several and actually delivered quite a few of them to friends and family over the past few weeks. And if you’ve never made a string […]

The post String Block Quilted Potholder Tutorial appeared first on A Quilting Life.

 It's time to make Christmas happen here in the Sticks

Welcome to 

Creatin' in the Sticks!

I'm excited to kick off the

Virtual Cookie Exchange and Blog Hop

where bloggers are sharing Christmas cookies recipes, traditions, 

and/or 

sewing projects.

Thank you, Carol, for including me!

Merry Christmas!

It's been a crazy year and I think we are all ready to start a new one.

Then Christmas comes along and things seem a little happier ...

"Now you're cooking!" was a phrase my mother often used. She'd sometimes add, "with gas."  Since both the houses we lived in when I grew up had mid-century "All Electric!" kitchens, electric stoves were all I knew.   The first gas range I cooked on was in my apartment in Texas -- a post-war 24" Roper. I had to use a kitchen match to light the burners and the oven. (The heat came from a Dearborn gas space heater that also required matchlight ....but I digress.)     HERE is more about the origin of "now you're cooking with gas." 

And ...