Dresden plate potholder

Time for more hand sewing! Keith and I have been listening to this awesome audio book (in Swedish) for several weeks now. We love listening to audio books together - it's much easier to concentrate on the story (and not get caught up in the dishes, dinner or whatever you're doing while you're listening) when you have someone right there with you to discuss it with. We have taken to listening in our combined office/craft room, that way he can work on projects at the desk and I can sit at my sewing table. It's been great. The only problem is that it's hard to go to bed when we get caught up in a particularly interesting chapter! I started this hand sewing project last week to have something to do while we were listening, and it only took two (rather long) evenings to complete.

This potholder/trivet is completely hand sewn, made using my new favorite technique English paper piecing and a perfectly sized Dresden template (which Keith created for me using some computer program or other - don't even ask), and the layers of Insul-Bright and Warm&White batting are held together with some simple hand quilting. I really need to work on my hand quilting skills, as you can probably tell!

I do think I did well on matching the fabrics for this one though. The "hipster kitty" fabric in the center is a really neat Spoonflower fabric by independent designer Andrea Lauren. Although it seems that this particular print has been discontinued since I bought my swatch, I can really recommend a look through her huge library of spoonflower designs.

I really like the text fabric as well, so much so that I bought it in three different colorways. I can see myself using it a lot in future. In fact, I'm already planning on using the blue one for an upcoming project - but more on the later. Have a great week!