Charm square pot holder tutorial

I found these cookbooks for my daughter and DILs for Mother's Day gifts.  They seemed to ask for a quilty kind of project as well.  I had a stack of five inch squares of Lori Holt's Polka Dot Stitches packaged by Riley Blake and several fabrics from her other lines that I have picked up on sale, so I decided to make a quilted pot holder to go with the cookbook.

The first step was to pick four coordinating squares and sew two pairs together checking for darks and lights.

Each two sewn together squares is then cut crosswise into 2 1/2 inch strips.

Alternate the two strips

and sew together lengthwise.

Now cut 2 1/2  inches pieces off each side leaving a 4 1/2 inch four square block.

You will now have four 2 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch pieces and two 4 1/2 inch squares.

Now sew together two 2 1/2 inch inch pieces to form another 4 1/2 in square.

Arrange the four squares in a pleasing manner.

Sew together to make one side of the square pot holder.

In no time at all, you will have sewed together several.  My stack of charms had 28 pieces so I eventually made seven pot holders.

Now cut 10 inch squares of Insul-Bright, one for each pot holder.

Also cut ten inch squares of left-over batting.

Also cut coordinating binding.  You will need one WOF strip 2 1/2 inches wide.  I had some of Lori's Sew Cherry line which has strips of different colors and patterns.  I decided to use polka dots for the bindings.

Also cut ten inch squares of backing fabric.  All these pieces will be bigger than your quilt block but it will make it easier to machine quilt and then trim to size.

Now make a sandwich of backing, Insul-Bright, batting, and then pieced top.

Machine quilt on the diagonal.

Cut off excess and square up corners.

It will look like this and be about 8 1/4 inches square.

Iron your binding strip folding it in half.

Sew binding with 1/4 inch seam around three corners and leaving about two inches at end.

Trim binding even with edge on last corner.

Hand stitch binding down by hand.

Decide how big you want your loop to be and trim binding.

Sew loop piece by machine leaving two inch space on pot holder unsewn.

Now tuck in end of loop and attach remaining binding by hand.

Viola!

Cute quilty pot holders with fun backs and bindings.

I rolled them up

and tied them with a ribbon to the cookbooks.

Charm pack gift card holders

This year we gave some of our adult children gift cards for Christmas.  I decided it would be fun to present the cards in a fabric gift card holder.  I looked at several tutorials online and then decided I could adapt them and use charm pack 5 inch squares.

I had three charm packs which were passed out at Quilt Market in Kansas City that coordinated well.  I had two of Tulip Festival by Jackie Robinson and a smaller charm pack of Bordering on Brilliance by Jenny Beyer. 

For one card holder you will need 2 squares which coordinate for the outside (I have already used the skinny strip on other holders), 2 matching squares which match, and 1 square which contrasts with the matching squares.  Having two of Tulip Festival provided me with the  matching squares.

Stitch the outside pieces together using a quarter inch seam allowance.

Press seam towards narrow strip.  (Sorry for the dark dots on my lens.  Can't figure out how to clean it.)

Trim to a rectangle of 5 X 6 inches.

Take matching squares.

Fold wrong sides together matching edges and and press.

Place on both sides of rectangle matching edges.  (Beyer squares were slightly larger than Robinson.)

Sew with quarter inch seam allowance on each side.

Now you are ready to add the final contrasting square.

Place it in the middle and don't worry about raw edges on the sides.

Stitch a quarter inch seam along the top and bottom.

Trim off the corners above stitching.

Turn so all right sides are facing out.  See how the raw edges have disappeared.  Push corners out.

Give a final press.

Fold in half.

The Jenny Beyer border print looks lovely with a finished edge either way,

Find the gift cards you received for Christmas.

And insert them in your holder where they will remain safe and all in one place until you decide to go shopping.  So far I've made 5 holders from my charm packs and there are still possible combinations left.