Sugar & Spice Potholders {Tutorial & Giveaway}

Today I'm excited to share the first of two tutorials I've put together using a collection of bright and fun prints from the Little Kukla and Frippery fabric collections. Julie, my blog sponsor and personal fabric genius over at the Intrepid Thread, generously allowed me to pick 8 of my favorites from these two collections to play with. These prints have kind of a light-hearted, folk feel to them that I thought would be perfect for brightening up the kitchen during the winter months. So I decided to sew a couple sets of potholders--two ways--using a handful of sewing techniques that are really fun and easy to practice on a project this size. Today I'm showing how to make the pocketed Sugar & Spice Potholder Set.

Materials Needed:

• 4 coordinating fat quarters
• 16" x 24" of all-cotton batting (larger scraps work well for this project) *Note: All-cotton is important for safety reasons. Don't use polyester*
• 8" x 16" piece of Insul-Fleece interfacing (manufactured by Pellon)

Other Notions:

• Basting Spray (or curved safety pins)
• Erasable/ removable marking pen
• Walking or darning foot for quilting
• Coordinating quilting thread

Cutting Instructions:

-Plus-

• 6 - 8" x 8" pieces of all-cotton batting 
• 2 - 8" x 8" pieces of Insul-Fleece 

Sewing Instructions:

(1) Grab one of the 8" x 8" fabric squares in Print A and 2 of the 5" x 5" fabric squares in Print C. Lay the smaller squares on top of the larger square, right-sides together, lining up outer the corners. Pin in place and draw a diagonal line on each smaller square as shown above. Sew along the drawn line.

(2) Leaving a 1/4" seam allowance, trim the excess fabric from the block on each corner. Flip the resulting small triangles out and press the seam open. The finished block will measure 8" x 8".

(3) Then grab one of the 8" x 8" pieces of fabric in Print C and lay it wrong-side up. Next grab a piece of cotton batting. Using spray baste, adhere the batting to the fabric following the manufacturer's instructions. Then layer one of the pieces of Insul-Fleece, another piece of batting, and finally the sewn block--spray basting between each layer to form a stacked mini-quilt sandwich.

Note: Spray baste really works best for this type of project due to the amount of layers of batting and interfacing, but curved safety pins may also work. Be careful to keep the layers from shifting while pinning if you go this route.

(4) Repeat steps 1-3 to begin making the second potholder.

(5) Then grab one of the 8" x 8" pieces of fabric in Print B. Measure 2.5" in from the corner of the fabric and mark. Repeat for the opposite diagonal corner and connect the two marks, drawing a diagonal line.

(6) Cut along the drawn line.

(7) Repeat steps 5-6, being careful to measure and cut along the opposite side of the fabric square to create a reverse of the first cut piece (see below). This will be the interior fabric for the potholder pocket, so the diagonally cut edge needs to be flipped in order to layer properly. 

(8) Then lay one of the freshly cut pieces of fabric on top of a piece of batting and use it to trim the batting to size.

(9) Next lay one of the cut fabric pieces wrong-side up and using spray baste, adhere the cut batting piece to the top of the fabric. Then layer the other reversed cut fabric piece, using spray baste, to create a mini quilt sandwich. 

(10) Repeat steps 5-9 to create the second fabric pocket. 

(11) Then densely quilt all four individual quilt sandwiches (two pockets and two full squares). I used diagonal straight-line quilting for my potholders. 

(12) Next grab the 2.5" strips in Print D. Join them together diagonally and press in half to prepare the binding tape. Measure and cut two 10" pieces of binding tape for the potholder pocket pieces. 

(13) Sew the raw edge of the binding tape to the diagonal edge of the quilt pocket. Then fold over the binding and top-stitch in place. Repeat this for the second pocket piece.

(14) Then lay your pocket piece on top of one of the quilted squares lining up three of the corners. To prevent shifting while stitching the binding on, you may wish to sew a scant 1/4"basting seam along the edges where the pocket and square overlap. Then sew the binding tape onto the stacked layers, mitering your corners as you go. Sew carefully and slowly through the thick layers, especially when sewing onto the bound edge of the pocket. Repeat for the second potholder.

(15) Finally, fold over the binding and machine stitch in place or hand sew to finish. I used a small zig-zag stitch to finish my binding by machine on both potholders.

And that's it! Enjoy your new potholder set. : )

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Now for the giveaway, sponsored by the Intrepid Thread!

One lucky reader will win a quarter bundle of 8 of my favorite pics from Little Kukla and Frippery courtesy of the Intrepid Thread. Here's how to win:

(1)  Leave me a comment, letting me know which collection from the Coming Soon page over at the Intrepid Thread is your favorite. I'm really looking forward to Shelburne Falls by Denyse Schmidt. : )

*If you follow me, you get a bonus entry! Just leave me a second comment.*

Giveaway closes Wednesday, January 9th at 10 PM PST. I will choose a winner at random. No purchase is necessary to win and chances of winning depend on the number of entries.

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Good luck and make sure to stop by again on Monday for the second installment featuring these fun prints in a new tutorial! 

P.S. There will be EEP for all you hand-stitching fans! : )

*Part of my 4th quarter FAL goals*