Homemade Gifts are the Best---Tutorial, my first!

I have this really good friend who had a birthday recently that is just one of those people who you want to do something special for. My friend Melinda does so much for so many that she inspired me to make this gift. Now the blogger in me actually had it together while creating, and I took pictures, so I thought I would share it with you!

Supplies needed:

2 dishtowels, 3 fat quarters (one will be the appliqued design), double sided double sided interfacing, like this interfacing 1/4 yard Insul-Bright, 'scraps' of quilt batting.

First off, find a simple design you like. I wanted a show steer silhouette. I literally google image searched and traced an outline from my computer screen. There's probably a better method, but that worked for me. (I was out of printer ink and in a hurry!)

Once you have your design, apply the pellon to your fabric. I cut my pattern out on the interfacing, and ironed it to the back side of the fabric, then it was easy to cut out the design, especially since I used black. 

(had to hurry and cut those out some I could flip 'em over and not see white cows!) LOL

Next step is to appliqued them on to your project. I centered them on the dishtowels. Pinned them in place and sewed them on the machine, with a blanket stitch on my sewing machine. 

Once they were appliqued, the dish towels were basically done. The Hot Pad construction begins now.

I appliqued the design onto one corner of each fat quarter. Based mostly on the size of my design and actually going to my kitchen drawer and measuring, I ended up with 8 inch squares for my hot pads. I think you could adjust that based on your needs and the size of the design you pick. 

Cut 2 squares. (I did this after appliqueing, thought the bigger piece of fabric was a little easier to work with.)

I also cut 3 strips of 2 inch wide 'binding' for the edges. (turns out 2 would have been enough, live and learn) 

Next, cut same sized squares of Insul-Bright and batting. You need 1 square of the Insul-Bright and 2 squares of batting for each finished hot pad.

Layer together: fabric, batting, Insul-Bright, batting and fabric; like this:

Quilt it however you like, I was pretty basic and just quilted a straight seam across each corner. 

The next step was to 'bind' the hot pad. The way I do binding is this: I sew together the strips into a long 'snake' (my 4H girls like that terminology) the press it hotdog bun style (another 4H quilt project term) 

I sew it around matching raw edges to the hot pad edge and finish the hot pad. With a scrap from the binding, I made a loop for the hot pad. Did that like this:

I cut a strip of about 3inches (no I didn't measure) I pressed in the ends, then opened the 'hot dog bun' and folded in the sides. 

Pressed it all together flat. Then I 'caught' the ends on the back side of the hot pad as I was sewing the binding down. 

There's how it looked. (yes I probably should have matched threads, sigh...........)

Finished project. 

There they all are again, to remind you. FYI--the black fabric is 'Grunge' from Moda. I like to use it for a solid, has a neater texture than JUST a solid. The brown striped print was a Red Rooster fabric and I am not sure on the red plaid. The Dish towels are Dunroven House purchased at my local quilt shop, Material Girl Quilt Shop and lastly, the cool little 'can' was purchased at a local gift shop, Addie Jane's. both shops have facebook pages, next time you are on there, stop in and tell them I said HI (make sure to LIKE them also!!) 

Well gift made, blog post written, now to listen to my St. Louis Cardinals!

Have a great spring week, I think its finally here to stay,

From Tulip~

KH

:)