| Deer Skye Quilt and Home Design

This is a great project for anyone wanting to learn to quilt. You can make a quilt block, turn it into a quilt sandwich, quilt it, and bind it, then use it or give as a thoughtful gift. It takes a little time but it is easy peasy and will help you gain the confidence you need to try bigger quilting projects.

Make a quilt block of your choice.
Add 2 layers of thick batting or you can use some insul bright batting.
Add enough backing so you can use it as self binding as well.
Use some perle cotton thread to quilt your block aka hot pad.
Place backing wrong side up. Set the two layers of thick batting on top of your backing so it measures about 1/2″ wider than your quilt block all the way around your quilt block.
Use safety pins to hold your backing and quilt top in place.
Quilt your hot pad (which will be a quilt sandwich) with the perle cotton and a # 5 sewing needle.
Fold each edge of your hot pad over so the raw edge is not showing and the folded edge is even all the way around your hot pad.
Pin your binding in place.
Sew the edge of your hot pad. Sew each corner diagonally then push your backstitch button and backstitch it in the corner and turn and continue sewing down folded edge of your backing on your hot pad.
Press the edge of your hot pad to make sure it doesn’t turn funny.

A sweet friend of mine had her only daughter marry recently. It was bittersweet for her. Yes she was happy with her new son in law but letting her only daughter go was a little hard for her. Maybe you can relate. I’ve experienced three sons getting married and moving forward with their lives. So grateful to have their wonderful wives join our family but watching a son or a daughter move on with their life while joyous is still kinda hard! I made a couple of these hot pads to gift to the newlywed couple with a small rolling pin my hubby designed and a half size cookie sheet. A useful fun gift for anyone.

Choose a quilt block for the top of your quilted hot pad.

Choose Your Quilt Block

Decide what quilt block you want the top of your hot pad to be. I made an Ohio Star quilt block. I love Ohio Stars. You can do multiple colors of fabric or just use two fabrics like I did. Tap into your fabric stash and use up some of that fabric you have stored away for a rainy day. This will be the beginning of your hot pad. This is your chance to be creative and make something you can use in your own kitchen. You could even make several of these to give as Christmas gifts to friends and neighbors. It is never too early to think ahead to Christmas at least coming from someone who could celebrate the season year round wink wink.

Measure your batting to the size of your quilt block.

Batting For Your Hot Pad

Place two layers of thick batting on top of each other and then place your quilt block on top of them. Cut excess batting away from your quilt block hot pad topper. I used regular thick batting and used two layers to ensure better insulation. However if you like, you can use Insul Bright batting instead. I just had thick batting on hand and decided to insulate my hot pads with that.

Your backing will become your binding too so make sure you have enough backing to use as binding as well.

Backing And Binding Fabric

Pick a backing fabric which you will also use as your binding fabric (don’t cringe when I say binding because it will be pretty easy to form the binding around your hot pad). Use fabric that will contrast with the fabrics of your quilt block. You want your backing to accent your quilt block and not compete with it.

Perle Cotton For Quilting

I love (I know I use this word love a lot when talking about quilting tips…) using perle cotton thread for hand quilting. You can be bold or subtle with this thread depending on the color you choose but love the consistent stitches and contrasting stitches and the quilting stitches that enhance your quilt top that this thread can make on your quilting projects. I like to use a # 5 quilting needle to quilt my projects with.

Put your quilt block, backing, and binding altogether. Easy to create.

Put Hot Pad Together

Time to assemble your quilted hot pad. Put your backing wrong side up. Center your batting on top of your backing. Lay your quilt block on top of your batting. There should be about 1/2″ of extra fabric around the entire edge of your quilt block. Secure your quilt block with large safety pins or pins in each corner. Now you are ready to quilt your hot pad.

Simple Quilting

You don’t have to get too fancy with your hand quilting here unless you want to. What I mean by that is you can sew around the design of your quilt block with a quilting running stitch. I did a running stitch with ivory perle cotton up the middle of my hot pad, then across the middle, on the diagonal which is corner to corner and then a running stitch on the other diagonal corner to corner. This pattern worked nicely for quilting my hot pad. I think quilting your hot pad adds so much character to the hot pad. “Puffy goodness” so to speak.

Make an easy binding by folding the raw edge over so it doesn’t show.

Fun With Binding

Here is the easy way to bind your hot pad as promised! Carefully fold the raw edge fabric over around the outside of your quilt block so you have a finished edge. Pin in place. Do this all the way around your hot pad being careful to fold the corners so they are smoothly in place. If you are having trouble with your edge turning, smooth it out and press it so it will stay smooth all the way around your hot pad. You are almost there. Almost done can you believe it?

Time to sew the edge of your hot pad on your sewing machine.

Finish Up

It is time to finish your hot pad by sewing your binding to your quilt block. Sew close to the edge of your pinned hot pad. Sew all the way around your hot pad to secure your binding to your quilt block. Ta Da! You are done. Now you can sew up a few more it’s just that easy. And fun!

Easy Peasy Quilted Hot Pads You Can Make