Scrappy Herringbone Quilt Block

Welcome to the 17th’ week post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders. In this post, we’ll be making a herringbone quilt block hotpad.

Here are the list of past week’s posts in this 52 Weeks of Hot Pads Challenge:

I thought it would be a great challenge for me to do a pot holder a.k.a hot pads every single week of 2019. (but I am currently falling behind, maybe I’ll catch up but if not, it will just be a 52 weeks but not in a single year)

I am planning on having it displayed in my kitchen. They make great decor don’t they?

While I am at it, I am going to be sharing with you a simple tutorial on the process.

You can join in the challenge and make the same hot pads I make every week with the same design or any of your own choice.

Scrappy Herringbone

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Things I love & make this 52 weeks of Hot Pad project a lot more fun:

This ruler set – perfect size all of them
This rotating mat – can’t imagine one without this these days.
This Spray Baste – have always been a fan of spray baste, for small quilted projects – a must! although in most of these hot pads I also use pins as they are more than just a single batting in between.
This Batting – the perfect one for hot pads. Or in this hot pad, I am using two layers of cotton batting + aluminium insulation sheet in the middle (I love the final crisp sturdy and heat reflect of the final hot pad with this combo)
My Fabric Scraps!! – read more how I sort my scraps HERE>

Making the Herringbone Quilt Block:

For this hot pad you’ll need:Strips of fabrics.

I am picking mine from the pile of strips of scraps in my box. I know I’ve told you many times in this blog of how much I love my scrap organizing system, but this by far is my favourite. By keeping all the strips upright like this, I was able to pick the fabrics I feel like to work with and keep it all yet together. Not tangled, and still flat to use. If you haven’t started organizing your scraps for easy use, you may want to read how I do mine in this post HERE>>

I then cut the strips to a uniform width. Mine was 1.5″ wide.

There were various size length and I simply would readjust as I sew them to ensure that they’ll cover up the area for the hot pad.

Using a portable design board, I place the first design I thought that would be a great fit and started sewing starting with a 1.5″ square.

I love using the portable design board as I can easily carry the pieces next to my sewing machine.

You can get a premade portable design board here. I have a couple of them and have found them very useful.

As the piece gets larger, it is time to reevaluate and adjust so that the corners would be covered.

I simply fold the sides and evaluate whether the size would be a good size and whether I needed to add in more pieces to make sure all are covered.

Trimming the herringbone quilt block

When the piece is large enough, it is time to trim it into a square. You can choose to cut it into a rectangle too. I made mine 9″ square in size.

Using this method, you can basically make any size shape Herringbone quilt block, you can even make it a rectangle instead of square.

Make a quilt sandwich and baste it.

I personally love basting using spray especially for small projects like this. 505 Spray is my favourite. Have you tried spray basting? If you have a spray baste, I recommend spraying at least the top layer down to make it easier to quilt so that it doesn’t flip while you get all the layers quilted.

However, since I ran out of the spray baste, I decided to go with the curved pins instead.

For these hot pads I love using either double batting, or the . I like to double layer my hot pads to absorb more heat.

This hot pad was quilted with a fun wave design in each of the herringbone strip.

I struggle to find a good way to this this at first, but I ended up starting from one side and ending on the other side and repeating it for the following layers. So, it wasn’t all continuous motion.

Time to practice your quilting skill..

Try it!

I always, always recommend people to practice their skills on little projects like these. They don’t go to waste and you’ll get satisfaction to continue on practicing.

Free Motion Quilting the Herringbone Quilt Block

Since the herringbone quilt block is made from strips, it is a great opportunity to practice free motion quilting designs or motifs that are guided by the seams. I decided to make a wavy design going opposite direction for each row.

Now that it is all quilted, time to trim it so it is all squared up again.

Make a hook and a binding tape (you can follow the tip in this post for piecing the binding tape perfectly when they meet up in the round ). I chose a solid turqoise blue for the binding to make it stand out from the scrappy herringbone design. I think it did stand out.