potholder tutorial

I was tweeking an old tutorial I'd written, in 2008!, and it disappeared. So I'm writing it again. :)

I like to think that I have perfected the making of potholders over the years. I have given many away and am now needing to replace the one's that have worn out.

This is the finished one.

Here is what lies beneath that pristine exterior. It was designed specifically to use up the double wide bias tape that is around the outside. I can tell it is one of my early potholders because the inside is of an old baby blanket I bought at a thrift store in 1976. It is still in good shape so I'll just cover it again.

Now I when I get a towel that is worn out I make blanks to go inside more potholders. I cut them 8.25" square cause I like big potholders.I have a stack of these ready to go.

If I need to I'll butt them together and zigzag them so make the size I want. I use 2 layers of towel in each pot holder.

First I look at my supply of double wide bias tape and decide what color the binding will be. I decided to use the blue. You can tell this has been around for awhile, it is no longer 95 cents. I think it is $2.49 now. Most would choose a color to go with their kitchen....or make a holiday one.

Step one would be to draw a line diagonally across the terry cloth. I didn't draw one because there is a seam I can follow.

Step two, choose the fabrics, I used scraps and laid them out where I will be using them. Do NOT use light colored fabrics....they get dirty too fast and look ugly soon.

Step three, sew the pieced triangle using a stitch and flip method. I start in the center;

then lay a strip on one side of the center. Pin it,

then lay a strip on the other side of the center. Pin and stitch.

 Press the strips open.

Continue sewing strips until the triangle is filled.

Notice that all the strips end well beyond the diagonal line and the outside edge.

I cut a triangle larger than I needed and pined it across where the diagonal line is. Do not stretch this when you pin it.

Then sew. Flip the large triangle over and press the seam.

Before pressing and trimming.

Lay the back onto the back of your potholder. Pin then

baste around the outside edge. I used a walking foot here.

Then trim it to 8"

Add the binding (sorry no tutorial here.) I usually do not put a loop for hanging, cause I've never used it but some may find it usefull.

and you are finished.

Here is a red one that is not quite finished but you can see the large triangle is made up of little strips.
My daughter in law took lessons and made several; you can see them here.

I have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas potholders. I keep them with the holiday decorations and pull them out seasonally.

Mitered binding

I've done 90 degree corners for years on my binding. I willingly agreed to bind my daughter's quilt that had hexagon shapes on the edge of the quilt knowing it would be challenging. Not so much difficult as it just tedious. Angela counted the miters 2 nights ago; 256 outer points on her king size quilt, she did not count inside corners but I'm assuming the number is about the same. It takes 20 minutes to do the machine work on 7 miters.... That's about 12.5 hours of machine stitching.I'm spacing it out over 3 days. We moved the sewing machine to the dining room table so I wouldn't be hidden away in the sewing room. And I have the whole table to hold the weight of the quilt...very important, since it is so heavy.
I watched a few tutes about mitering and this one is good about the inside corner. Then this one about the outside corner.

 Here you can see the binding started....I'm about 14 done. The only thing I added to the above tutorials is to

 stay stitch the quilt, all the way around with a small stitch a scant 1/4" in from the edge. Then when I clip the seam I clip almost to the stay-stitching. I did not want to be guessing where to stop and start the stitching. Looking on the backside, since the front side is hidden by the binding, I insert a pin at the 1/4" mark made by the stay-stitching through to the sewing side of the binding, then repin it on the front side and then stitch it to the pin. (You can see the water soluble marking on the front that I used when quilting to know not to quilt where the binding would be. That mark did no good at the binding stage since I could not see it from either side.

Perfect top stitching

For Christmas last year I made each of my teenagers 2 pillowcases using this 'hot dog' method. I made the contrasting piece a little bigger than needed and every time it gets washed it starts waving at you and needs to be ironed.
Never again. I took it to the sewing room and top stitched the edge down. I took a few pictures so you can see my method of getting the edge top stitched down perfectly with NO TROUBLE. I use this blind hem foot for my machine.
Position the foot with the edge of the black fabric against the blade of the foot (mine is black). Move the needle over so that it stitches to the right of the blade.

Here you can just barely see the stitches that I started with, (without my blind hem stitch foot) and without changing the bobbin to a dark thread....those stitches came out. The blade rides along the ridge of fabric and you get perfect top stitching.
It is hard to see the stitches here so I did a sample with white fabric too.
Perfect! Here's the new and improved pillowcase:

Can you guess whose pillowcase this is?

tutorial

I promised a tutorial on my spotty, dotty quilt project that I demonstrated at my Quilt Guild almost a month ago. I thought it would be a quick thing to post but I didn't get done before Quilt Market and Festival. It's such a simple block it should have written itself....but it didn't. Go to my other blog; thequilterupstairs.com if you're interested.

relaxed log cabin tutorial

There are several names for these log cabin blocks; Gwen Marston calls them Liberated log cabin, others call them Wonky log cabins, I've been calling them Relaxed log cabins. Maybe we should call them Falling down log cabins.... I used them in both of Austin's quilts. I also used them in my Texas Flag quilt pictured in my header. Sample blocks of this charity quilt are laid out here.

I have sorted my fabric scraps into different color bins. There is a purple, brown, black, pink, green, blue, yellow/orange, red, white and turquoise bin or bag. Most (nearly 100%) of my scraps are 100% cotton but if you find one that clearly isn't don't use it-I found a scrap of Melissa's prom dress with the blues. I am working with green since I need 11 green blocks.

Choose your first 2 fabrics.

I do not repeat a fabric within a block and try to use the small pieces in the center of the block, (instead of choosing a large piece and cutting it smaller).

Lay the two fabric, right sides together, with two edges together.

Stitch 1/4" from edge of fabric. I am using a 1/4" foot so I try to keep the edge of the fabric at the edge of the foot. YOU MUST HAVE EACH SEAM 1/4" OR LARGER. Smaller seams can be re-sewn easily before more logs are added; Quilts need to be sturdy and 1/8-1/16 inch seam will not hold up to heavy use. Use a slightly smaller stitch than normal so there is NO need to backstitch since every seam will be locked in place when the next seam is sewn over it. Notice the frayed bit of fabric on the left side of the top fabric; the frayed bit is not fabric and should not count as part of a 1/4 inch seam when it is eventually sewn; trim that before sewing so you do not use part of it for the 1/4 inch seam.

Press seams to one side. I use starch and the patch that the seams are pressed away from will be your center patch. (It does NOT have to be square; rectangles and even triangles can be used.)

Square it up. That does not necessarily mean cut it into a square; just cut the edges straight; so the next 'log' is easier to sew straight.

Choose your next fabric.

Sew it, right side against the right side of the previous 2 'logs'. Again 1/4 inch seam.

Here I've finger pressed the seam away from the center log (the stripe).

Here I've chosen fabric #4.

Here I've laid fabric #4 on top of the center section and you can see that the fabric doesn't line up. As long as I lay the straight piece on top of the crocked one I have a straight line (fabric #4) to follow and the seam will be fine. I will trim that piece off after I press.
Here's my block after sewing #5 on. At this stage I usually starch, press and straighten again.

Here you can see the center (stripe) and see that the seams are pressed away from the center. You can also see the extra fabric in 2 of the seams.

It's important to trim the selvages off.

Here I've straightened the edges again. Continue doing this after every 4 logs or more often if you prefer.

After sewing fabrics down look at it to figure out where the next fabric goes. The edge with the most seams is the one that gets sewn next (should be 2, if there is a mistake don't worry about it just keep going forward.) Continue going around until your block is at least 10.5 inches across.

Trim any loose threads on the surface and on the back of the block and trim it to the desired size; in this case 10.5 inches. It is easiest to use a large square ruler.

When making these it is better to have wider pieces on the edge of the block; if there is just 1/2 " of fabric after it is trimmed it will not lay as flat after it is sewn into a quilt.

notes: I just use the next fabric that comes to hand.. sort of; I have to dig to get the right size and sometimes a long piece is patched out of 2 or 3 fabrics, but I don't worry about color since all greens go together, it's called a monochromatic color scheme.

potholders

Here are some more made by my daughter-in-law.