New Year - New Sew Cal Gal Challenge: A Handmade Christmas

The new year brings all kinds of changes to our lives. With both my children married off, my husband and I just finished a kitchen and bath remodel that we hope will last another 20 years. I'm now thinking of turning one of the bedrooms into a dedicated studio for all my arts and crafts, including quilting, of course.

Right now that's just in the thinking stage. Meanwhile, my quest to become a better quilter has led me to accept another, different, challenge from one of my favorite bloggers, Sew Cal Gal. Actually, there are two challenges, but today I'm just posting for one of them. The subject of this post, is "A Handmade Christmas Challenge".

 Each month Sew Cal Gal will encourage us to post things we have made to either for our own homes for Christmas, or to use as Christmas gifts. We link them up and get a chance to win a prize via a monthly random drawing. I have entered Sew Cal Gal's FMQ challenges in 2012 and 2013 and won some great quilting design books from Martingale and a pair of Grip & Stitch sewing disks from clevercrafttools.com. The challenges were so much fun and my FMQ improved so much that the prizes are just icing on the cake!

Now, on to today's entry for the January challenge. I just finished making a microwave bowl potholder in a Christmas fabric. I think it would be great for heating rolls or muffins as well. I got this as a kit from Yellow Creek Quilt Shop in Pearl City, Illinois. It was really easy to make from 10" squares (layer cake) and cotton batting. The kit isn't listed on their website, but I've found there are also a number of online tutorials for this. Here's one from Seamshappy.com.

The most challenging part of this project was turning the finished bowl right side out. Aside from that, it was super easy. Just remember not to use metallic threads or fabric with metallic highlights. My finished bowl potholder:

Microwave Bowl Potholder

Looking down on the inside.

In use.

I hope you check out Sew Cal Gal's website and take the Handmade Christmas Challenge as well. I can't wait to see all the things people make for Christmas! I'll be back with more next month. See you at Sew Cal Gal's linky!