My First Potholders

I learned a lot while making my first quilt. One of the most important things I learned is that I really need to improve my sewing skills. Technically, I already knew that. But while making the quilt, it was painfully obvious that I should practice using the sewing machine a bit before jumping in to make my next quilt. 

A few weeks ago, my quilt group taught an easy potholder craft after church. First we shared a video about the mission of Lutheran World Relief, then we helped the attendees sandwich batting between two squares of material and hand-tie them to make potholders. In preparation (and to get in some sewing practice), I made my first-ever potholder. And then I made two more. 

This is my first potholder. I cut two 11" squares of the same Christmas fabric and two 9" squares of heat-resistant batting (affiliate links here and below), layered them together, and then hand-tied them with red embroidery floss in the center and near each corner. Then I folded up each edge, clipped them in place (so much better than pins!), and sewed. 

For a first attempt, it's not bad. It doesn't look square, but it actually is close. My stitching wasn't quite straight, but that wasn't the problem. The issue is that I cut my fabric squares without paying attention to the checked pattern in the background. I should have made sure those were straight before cutting. Lesson learned. 

This is my second potholder. I cut the fabric correctly, so this time the crookedness isn't an optical illusion. It is definitely not square. As you can see, I machine-quilted this one rather than hand-tying it. I went to great effort to make sure my lines of stitching were as straight as possible and things were looking pretty good until I did the binding. I thought I could just fold up the edges, clip, and sew and it would be fine. Nope!

For my third potholder, I clipped the edges then machine-quilted the layers together. My lines were straight and everything looked great. I did the binding on two of the sides and it still looked good. Then I tried repeatedly to get the other two sides straight. As you can see, I did not accomplish that goal. 

 

Now I know that I should have basted the layers together with pins to prevent them from shifting, which happens during machine quilting. Just clipping the edges in a few places was not adequate. After quilting, I should have squared up the block before attempting to bind it. I'll try those next time. I've also learned about the importance of a walking foot. I assume I wasn't using that, based on the problems I had binding my quilt and the fact that now my potholders look like the problem she outlined in the video. 

Overall, I'm satisfied with my first attempts at potholders. They're recognizable as potholders - a low bar, sure, but that's where beginners start! I'm more than willing to accept imperfection, especially for something utilitarian like a potholder. But I hope that my next attempts show at least a little bit of progress.