Tutorial Tuesday: Quilted Potholder

Photo Quilts start at $100
(Enter our contest & you can take 20% off this item)

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT 

Every week on Tuesday, we will post a tutorial for quick and easy project. The project could be a sewing, cooking or craft project. For two weeks, we encourage our followers to decide how to make the project their own and take a picture.  Email these pictures to feelgoodfalls@gmail.com and we will post them on our blog and Facebook.  As a team, we will decide which project was the best and that person will receive a 20% coupon off a customized Feelgood Falls project.  Maybe you have been eying a t-shirt quilt or a rag quilt or you need some Halloween costumes or special event clothes, this is your opportunity to get a great bargain!  

 THE SKINNY ON THIS CONTEST
Contest Rules for Quilted Potholder

Contest begins Tuesday, July 30, 2013 to Tuesday, August, 13, 2013.  Pictures must be received by 11:59 pm MST Tuesday, August 13, 2013 and emailed to feelgoodfalls@gmail.com.  Pictures must be in jpeg format.  Please include your name, age category (under 18, 18-24, 24-40, 40-60, 60+),  address, phone and email address so that we can award your prize if you win.  

Tutorial Tuesday:  Quick Quilted Potholder

This potholder can be made in a little over an hour and is a quick
project to practice your quilting skills. The printable .pdf to this project is available here.

 You will need:

 Sewing Machine

  Iron

 Ironing board

 Pins/Quilt Basting Spray

 Thread (if you want it to blend in to the fabric, choose one that matches; otherwise, it’s up to you)   Rotary Cutter

Rotary Mat

Rotary Ruler
Water Soluble pen or Marking chalk

   Fabric (2 pieces of fabric cut 21" x 10" (Fabric A - this is the front and back of potholder), 1 strip of fabric (Width of Fabric x 5")

   Batting cut to a 9" square

Step 1:

   After fabric A into 21" x 10" squares, mark the right side of your fabric (one square) about every 1 1/2” to 2” with a water soluble pen/marking chalk.  Save time and mark in the opposite direction as well. This makes squares on the fabric. 

 

Step 2:

  

Making the “quilt sandwich”

Your background fabric is wrong side facing up.  Next the batting, yes, it is smaller than the fabric and this is okay.  Follow up with the top fabric and place it right side up.  True quilters will normally pin or baste this, but we prefer using quilt basting spray.  It is up to you, whichever one you decide.  If you choose to use the spray, just spray the batting on either side and reassemble the “sandwich.”

  Step 3:

Quilting

Following the lines that you made in step 1, quilt the sandwich together.  As you can see from our pictures, we chose a simple running (chain) stitch.  You could at this point play with some of your machines stitches and change the styles or lengths with each pass.  Make sure to quilt both directions.

Step 4:

Square It Up!

The plan now is to square up your potholder.  Even the most experienced quilter will have fabric that shifts on them, so don't dismay.  Square up your potholder to 9" square.  We took off approximately 1/2" from all four sides. Now set aside for a moment or two.

   Step 5:

"Mock" bias tape

With the smaller fabric, cut two strips 2 1/4" by WOF.  Put the right sides together and sew the short edges together (one side per each strip).  Use at least 1/4" seam. Iron seam open, as shown.  Fold the strip lengthwise and iron it. 

   Step 6:

   Making the tab

-   From this strip cut 6-7" off.

   -Make a "mock" double fold bias tape.  To do this, open the ironed fold and fold each side towards the center and iron flat. Fold again along your first crease, right sides together, so your two folded edges are together. Press. You've just made your own double-fold bias tape. Call all your friends and brag. Or, if you're the modest type, simply move on the attaching it.

-   Complete a scant 1/4" top stitch on each side of the smaller strip.  Iron 1/2" towards the center on each of the smaller sides.

Step 7:

Attaching the bias tape....

Attach raw edges of the mock bias tape to the edges of the potholder with pins.  Sew around the entire potholder, close to edge.  As you can see from our pictures below, to obtain a finished edge on your bias tape, fold a portion of the bias tape on itself, and push the other end into it.  For the corners, add about 1/2" extra of fabric.  When sewing, before getting to the corners, stop approximately 1/4" before the corner.  Remove from the machine and move to the next side without sewing the corner.

Flip the potholder over and pin the bias tape to the front and sew the bias tape to the potholder.  Traditionally, you would hand sew this, but we opted to machine sew it. 

Step 8: 

The Tab!

Sew the tab, one side per side of the potholder. We wanted it to be secure, so we did a square and then an "X" inside the square. 

The Finished Potholder