Faux chenille potholders to baby quilt (um rug)

Have you made faux chenille? Well I love texture and saw these little potholders at a local LQS and decided to give them a try.  They are great in the kitchen, look good, work hard and launder up wonderfully.  My hubby has big hands and he loves that I made them oversized, perfect for him.  I like the extra protection they give me. 

The rounded one on the bottom is my favorite because I finally got the binding on to my satisfaction.  These were fun and fairly easy to make.  I  have several more cut and ready to sew for those "quick fix" times I just need to sit at the machine.  This lady gives a good tutorial: http://timberhillthreads.blogspot.com/2009/12/chenille-potholder-tutorial.html
Now, from this success I decided to try the baby quilt, and this is what came of that bright idea:

Isn't that little animal print cute?  This blanket is very cuddly, soft and heavy !  Boy oh boy did I struggle with this blanket. At the end of it all I serged around the edges rather than apply a binding because I made several mistakes and just wanted to finish it off.  I don't know why I thought I needed to add a layer of batting (possibly because that's what I did for the potholders) - big mistake - it really made this blanket a bear to wrestle through the sewing machine.  I used a Warm and Natural batting (100% cotton) which is a heavy/dense batting anyway.  The batting and five layers of flannel were waaaay tooo much.  I was afraid it was going to turn out hard and stiff, like a rug, but after a couple of rounds through the washer and dryer it softened up considerably.  I may try another one without the batting.  (as soon as my shoulder heals and my left arm stops hurting - haha) At least it will make a good utility blankie for baby, something to toss on the floor for playtime.  Now that I write this up I am thinking it really would make a good little rug for the bathroom and it wouldn't need to be this large.  I have small bathrooms. 

 Adios, Bernie