Sunday, October 6, 2013

Hot pads

Finished both of these last weekend, but I just haven't got around to writing about them.  I first saw these at my local quilt guild meeting in September.  This was the first meeting I'd attended.  Although I wasn't grabbed by the look of them at the time, the quilter's words, "I found the pattern on Moda Bakeshop", a site I'd only just recently discovered, sent my quilt pattern antennae to tingling.  Got home, went online and found them!  They are created by Melanie Dramatic, whose blog I follow, and they are called Herringbone Hot Pads.

I had lots of leftover scraps from my Seaside Rose quilt, and as I just love the soft colours of that palette, I thought it would be a great way to use up the scraps.  I even sewed a couple of larger pieces together to make the back of the hot pad.  Melanie's directions are very clear, and the accompanying pictures make it really easy, even figuring out just how to fold what to where to get the self-binding folded over onto the front!  We have been asked to make 2 placemats for Meals On Wheels for the October guild meeting, and I am going to use this method of cutting the backing a little larger than the front, folding it twice, and machine-stitching it down onto the front of the piece to make mine.

Here is the front view of the mats.  The one on the right has been washed (I love the way it crinkled up!) and the one on the left has had nothing done to it yet.
Here is the back view:
I used Sulky Blendables for the quilting, a 12-weight on the pink-backed mat and 30-weight on the seashell-backed one.  I've since washed the second mat and it crinkled up just as nicely.  I've also used them a couple of times, both to grab something out of the oven, as well as to rest a hot dish on.  With the double layer of batting plus the insul-bright batting (I used some shiny silver-backed thermolam I'd bought to cover a small ironing board), they provide plenty of protection.  I think they'd be great Christmas gifts.  Melanie made hers from a charm pack, but they do use up scraps quite nicely!  I am just so excited at the quilt world that I'm discovering online!  I know it's been there for decades, but the online teachers, classrooms, this Moda Bakeshop, the blogs--I find it is rekindling my passion, not that it had flickered out, but rekindling it in new ways and new directions.  And that gives me an idea for another post!


2 comments:

  1. The Meals on Wheels clients will love them. Most are seniors, so anything "quilty" will go over really well with them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you; good to know! I am writing a post about them so stay tuned!

    ReplyDelete

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