2/6/10: Potholders for the Sunflower Lady

A couple of weeks before Christmas last year, my siblings and I wanted to give a friend of ours a pair of sunflower-themed potholders as a Christmas present. She is known as the Sunflower Lady to us so you can understand the unusual theme!

Since I made a load of potholders back in October I knew what to do right away. When I was running through the sewing room's fabric stash, I found there was only one small piece of sunflower fabric left--I panicked.

But only for a bit. Knowing that I should really limit the amount of this fabric, I chose a quilt block that could use small pieces. I chose one from the Quilter's Calendar that I received from my aunt. Here it is:

I needed to resize the diagram because the finished block would have measured 10"; I needed it to be 8". I did this by scanning the diagram and resizing it using an image editing software.

The way I made the block is different from what I was used to. Pre-sunflower-potholder, I've made blocks by making my paper templates, adding a 1/4 inch to all sides, and then sewing them together using a 1/4 seam allowance. Easy to explain but not always easy to keep triangles, squares, and whatnot, uniform. The technique that I learned by way of this calendar is easy to do. Try making a block yourself by following their instructions here:

Once I made the block and the quilt sandwich, I bounded the edges and added a loop. Done! And just three days before Christmas, too. Whew! Made it!