Día de los Muertos potholders

These potholders are the reason I haven't been posting as frequently as normal. See, I made them for a "Pick your own theme" swap, and I had to keep them a secret until the recipient got them. I had SO MUCH FUN making these, she nearly didn't get them because I wanted them for myself.

I was paired up with Georgia, who's chosen theme was "Too hot to handle". She lives in Texas, so her theme was very appropriate, and ruled out my making her a wool hat and scarf set.

My original intent was to make one "good" and one "evil" skull. At first the black skull sported devil horns and the white one had a halo. Instead of adding to the pieces, the horns looked like kitty ears and the halo looked cheesy- it was a no brainer to snip them off.

Clearly I am no embroidery whiz, but again, I had SO MUCH FUN decorating the skulls. The skull pattern is available here (Ravelry link), lucky for me I downloaded the pattern when it was free.

To make the potholder, I chained 35 and then half double crocheted (hdc) each row until I had a decent size square (make 2 squares the same size). I then attached the skull to a square, embroidered, then single crocheted 2 wrong sides together and made a hanging loop. Easy!

Georgia reported that she loves the potholders and will use them as kitchen decor. I can't wait to see what I get for the swap!