Scrappy Leaf Quilted Hot Pad

 This week we’re making Another Leaf, this time from scrappy strips. You’re going to love this one, we’re making two at a time too!

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 way behind, maybe I’ll catch up but if not, it will just be 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.

I am loving my wall filling up with lots of colours! Making these and hanging them has been a lot of fun.

Scrappy Strip Leaf  

There are affiliate links within this post. Please find the full disclosure here. 

I am at my mom’s this week, hence a little different view as I sew from my Juki Industrial machine. 

If you are interested to check out — they’re super fast and makes piecing a breeze. 

Today we are playing with scrappy strips. So take out your stash of strips and let’s get to it. 

This leaf is inspired by my mum’s leaf hot pad around her house which she makes using her leftover scraps. 

Things I love & make the 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>
• Portable quilting design board . I love using the portable design board as it makes it easy to transfer from the cutting table to the side of the sewing machine. You can purchase a portable quilting design board here. 

How to make two leaves block

You will need

• various size strips of scrappy fabrics about 9-10 inches long. They can be varied in width from 1″- 2 1/4″ wide. (The more variation the better. I chose all autumnal colours for my hot pad.

Piecing the strips together

Piece the strips, side by side until the total width is about 9″.

Make 2 of this block.

Press and trim the pieced strips into an 8″ square block. 

Now it’s time to make the strips go diagonal.

Simply put the two blocks right side together with the strips both being horizontally aligned. 

Then, mark a diagonal line across the middle of the block. 

Sew 1/4″ on both side of this line. 

Cut on the drawn line.

And voila, you now have 2 new blocks. And the strips are now aligned diagonally. Can you see the scrappy leaf coming along?

Now it’s time to baste and quilt it. 

Making Quilt Sandwich

While in the past I have always loved the aluminium insulation sheet layer plus the double batting, I am at my mom’s when I was making this. 

And she doesn’t have any in stock. But she is very savvy and she gave me the idea to use fleece as the insert which is an awesome idea. 

I wouldn’t recommend this for a large quilt. Definitely a no-no as the shrinkage will affect big quilts and they’re pretty slippery as compared to batting. 

I talked about battings in the post here: How to choose the best batting. 

Anyway, I used fleece (blue fleece! cause that’s the only one she has) for this hot pad and it worked out fine. It was a small project and I think it does the job well enough.  

With so many layers, pins are always better to baste them all together. makes it easier to baste quilt sandwiches. 

Time to practice your quilting skill..

I am quilting using my Pfaff Quilting Grand and it was a lovely time to do it on this little project as I needed a practice piece before quilting a large quilt on this machine right after I finish this hot pad. 

This machine is rarely used and my mom had some frustration with it when I wasn’t around. So, it took some time to adjust a couple of things before it is running well for free motion quilting. 

I changed the needle (my go-to needle : ) and I made myself a DIY supreme slider (cause I couldn’t buy one nearby) and the machine worked perfectly again. 

This motif loop the loop is one my favourite! I love how therapeutic this is. I teach you to practice this motif in Free Motion Quilting Bootcamp in unit 2.

Related posts :

• Free Motion Quilting Foot,
• Tips for Free motion Quilting,
• Free Motion Quilting Design + Free Printable

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.

Now that it is all quilted, it is time to trim to shape. 

I used scissors and just eyeballed the shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Fun shaped leaves add a little more fun and quirks to the variation. 

Binding

Once you’ve got the shape there, let’s bind it. 

You must use bias binding for this. I teach you how to make bias binding in this video –> how to make bias binding.

This time for the hook, I simply make it from the extra bit when the binding meets back in the round. Totally my mum’s idea. 

by the way. That is her work in progress in the background. A table runner that matches well with the pot holders too. 

Well, there you go, our 22nd hot pad of the year! Scrappy leaf using strips of scrap fabrics.

need to pin this?

Pin the image below.

Have you made a Leaf Block this way before?

Are you making this hotpad? Let me know if you are and tell me how it goes. 

Let me know if you need any help.

Till next time, have a fun time sewing!

Please spread the words. Pin it, Share it on Facebook. Let’s join in the fun.