Neighbor Gifts
Jan 20, 2010 Sewing
This post has been on my to-do list for well over a month. Ross and I are lucky enough to have very generous neighbors that gift us delicious treats for Christmas. I wanted to return the favor without actually having to bake anything. Baking isn’t my thing. It’s stressful and messy. I can do without both.
So I decided to make festive hot pads. Oh, Franson’s tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! inspired my production method. Over this last year, I’ve cut up a fair amount of scraps. Pile #1 is 2.5″ squares.
I happend to have a nice Christmas and a coordinating plaid print.
I laid them out on a piece of interfacing. I prefer Pellon 911F for this project. Instead of drawing lines on my interfacing, as suggested by Elizabeth, I used the grid from my cutting mat as a guideline.
From here I sewed all my seams as directed in the tutorial. For the back I used a nice red flannel that I had on hand. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to snap a photo of the finished project. I was anxious to get them handed out. However, I did make a few additional hot pads out of scraps.
I’m fairly pleased with the end results. The finished size is around 8″ square. I think for my tiny hand, they’re a bit big to use has hot pads. I’m going to make some that measure close to 6″ square to see if they feel better in my hand. Regardless, the 8″ square size makes a great trivet.
Also I should mention for batting I used one layer of thermal interfacing and one layer of Warm n’ Natural batting. The thermal interfacing is made by Pellon. I don’t know the number off hand. Joann’s carries it. At first it’s a little crunchy, but after a few trips in the washer and dryer it softens right up. For my needle, I used a 90/14 Microtex/Sharp to quilt them. I love the look from the larger needle. From now on, I’m using larger needles for quilting and top stitching, totally work the effort.
