Potholder Swap!

This year’s Stitch Gathering swap item is a pot holder!

I am just starting to allocate partners for both of this year’s swaps (we are also hosting a nametag swap as we do every year) so I thought an inspiration post for pot holders would be a good idea.

So I thought I should have a go at making one myself.

It’s basically just a mini mini quilt (which are apparently quite ‘in’ at the moment!) with a loop for a handle. I decided to try quite a complex foundation paper pieced block (because I’m a bit of an over achiever, in case you haven’t noticed by now!) so I looked through some old Love Patchwork and Quilting magazines and found this very attractive ‘stardust’ block from one of Lynne’s many BOMs.

The templates needed enlarging 200% which would make a 16 inch block. I just copied them as they were so that I would get an 8 inch block. You can see the size of the templates in the photo above. They look scary, right?!

It’s not supposed to be on point but I think it works better. I used fabric from my Farmer’s Wife stash to make it.

Then I remembered that I needed insulated wadding to make a pot holder (something called Insul Bright). But luckily my LQS, Purely Patchwork in Linlithgow, stocks it! For those of you from further afield you can also get it from Empress Mills.

I used a piece of normal wadding too and quilted the 4 layers. I love how this looks on the back!

I then bound it with straight binding (to keep the points in the block I needed to mitre corners and therefore bias binding would not have been helpful).