Week 10 of 52 Weeks of Hot Pads | HST Stars with Mitred Border - The Little Mushroom Cap: A Quilting Blog

Welcome to the 10th week’s post of the 52 weeks of hot pads / quilted pot holders.

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.

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.

For this week, I decided to jump into my scrappy basket again.

This time into my ready-cut 5″ charms.

I have stacks of ready cut 1.5″ ,2.5″, 3.5″ and 5″ fabrics. Most of them from leftover scraps of previous projects or some of those fabrics I feel like isn’t much of my taste.

I love the fact that I am pretty organised with my scraps- making it easy and resistance free to use. I am not always like this, but in the past year, I have gotten the perfect organisation technique with this process I talked about HERE> in this post.

Can you spot the latest finish?? Oh, I just love the wall already. They are going to be full of hot pads by the end of this project. Can you imagine?

Starry HST Hot Pad Tutorial

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For this tutorial, I am going to use the leftover HSTs from the previous week. You can refer to that post to produce cute little 2″ HSTs. Just to remind you, trimming is essential for more accurate piecing. I love rotary cutting mat and a new blade always makes thing so much easier! (I love this set of generic blades)

Trimming HSTs will also be much more easier with these Rulers. They keep the rulers right on the diagonal line, so no shifting about while you’re trimming and turning.

2. Play around with the layout. This time I am aiming for the star look. I am grouping like colours together to bring the stars out. You’ll only need 16 pieces of HST for this block.

3. Chain piece the blocks together.

4. Since this block is a little smaller than out previous one, I decided to sew a border around the block. A great way to practice some skill is through small projects and I thought, why don’t I try out the mitred border I just learned how to do form this class HERE>

You can opt to do mitred border or the regular straight border. I do believe the border will make the hot pad just the right size.

I am using a 2″ strips for the border.

For a mitred border, the corners has to be cut diagonally at 45 degree angle.

Sewing the border to the block leaving a 1/4″ free from the edge. You’ll need to piece the diagonal sides together, therefore you don’t want to sew it all down. start sewing 1/4″ away from the corner all the way to the other 1/4″ at the other end.

Place the other side’s border while folding the previous side so that the diagonal edges now are aligned. Sew the border down again starting form 1/4″ away form the edge. Sew the diagonal edges together.

It worked out well – though I believe I could do better next time. It is all about the practice.

5. Trim it a little to square off and baste it.

6. Quilt it.

Time to practice you quilting skill..

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.

This time, I opt for one of my favourite FMQ design. The flower power.

I love the fact that it enhances the backing too – I picked a floral print and it just brings the flowers to live.

8. Trim the edges, and bind it! Don’t forget to put the hook before binding.

I am using the usual 2.5″ fold in half. From the back of the quilt, I align the raw edges of the binding tape to the trimmed quilted piece. Then, I sew a 1/4″ away from the edge.