Rhoni & John's Gifts

The first gift is the Catherine Bear. My sister and brother-in-law are excited about starting a family and we all know how late I am with gifts, so I figured early was better. I gave her blue eyes, because they both have blue eyes, so their babies probably will.
















Pattern: Catherine Bear from The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley.

Needles: US 2 / 2.75mm

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Dream Baby DK
Color: Natural/Tan
Content: 50% acrylic / 50% nylon

Her dress is cotton fabric with a dress pattern I made to fit her. The trim is hand-made bias tape. I forgot to take pictures of the back of the dress, but it has two snaps to close it. I hope to make some more clothing for the bear as they have kids. I will soon make her some bloomers.

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The other gift was a gift from me and my mother. I made hot pads to set pans on and my mother made the potholders. We used the same pattern, only changed each of ours slightly.

Here is my contribution, 2 matching hot pads. I'll admit they might be a little large, they are about 15.5 inches x 15.5 inches. But I wanted her to be able to fit larger pans on them too.

Pattern: Friendly Hand from the Quilter's Cache.
Fabric: Cotton green and black
Insides: Insul-Bright Thermal Batting (2 Layers, with metallic side up since pans will be sitting on the top).
Thread: Coats & Clark All Purpose 100% Cotton thread


The pattern top was sewn on a machine. The border is hand done with an blind hem stitch (I think that is what it is called) so you can't see it from the front or back.



I quilted around the green corner geometric swirls by stitching in the ditch, which is stitching into the space of the seam. This is so it isn't seen from the front. There is no border on the back because the border and back are all one piece. Here is what the back looks like from the quilting.





Honestly, I had a lot of fun making these and I prefer small quilting projects. Besides the potholder swap I am in, I definitely see me making more potholders in the future.