Tutorial: Folded Flap Hot Pads from First Light Designs

Here’s an easy and fun tutorial to get your New Year off to a crafty start.

With six squares of fabric plus one square of insulated heat-resistant batting, you can quickly assemble and sew a sturdy and stylish hot pad. You probably wouldn’t guess from looking that the design is created with four folded triangles, each of which creates a flap that is folded back to reveal a contrasting fabric diamond in the center.

My tutorial results in hot pads that finish about 8″ square but you can make them larger or smaller. See my “Notes” at the bottom of the tutorial.

These hot pads make great gifts — but don’t you want to make a couple first for your own kitchen?

Supplies
Sewing machine with walking foot, open-toed if possible
Standard sewing supplies (scissors, thread, seam ripper, etc.)
New needle — 90/14 sharp or jeans needle, as you will be sewing through multiple layers
Rotary cutting equipment – mat, cutter, rulers (4” x 14” comes in handy)
Wonder Clips (small size)
Gently pointed instrument, such as a bone folder, to poke out corners

Fabric
For one hot pad you’ll need six 9″ squares of 100% cotton fabric: one for the “diamond” fabric in the center of the hot pad, four for the triangles (made from folded squares) that go around the center diamond, and one for the back.

You’ll also need one 9-inch square of Insul-bright*, an insulated heat-resistant batting.

(*Insul-bright is made of polyester fibers needled through a reflective metalized polyester film. According to the Warm Company, maker of Insul-bright, the fibers “resist conduction while the reflective metalized polyester film reflects radiant energy, hot and cold, back to its source.” You could use two squares of 100% cotton batting as an alternative to Insul-bright but they wouldn’t have the reflective property.)

Choose at least three fabrics that go well together and offer good contrast. The fabric for the center diamond should be fairly bold, as you don’t see much of it. The fabric for the back can be any of the three that show on top or a completely different fabric. Because these hot pads are meant to be used, I advise steering clear of light-colored fabrics. Choose fabrics that are medium to medium-dark in value. Just being practical!

This design is fat-quarter friendly. One fat quarter yields four 9” squares. A regular or long quarter (9” x width of fabric, usually about 42”) also yields four 9” squares.  A fat quarter of three different fabrics yields enough 9” squares for two Folded Flap Hot Pads.

Cutting and pressing the fabric
Cut four 9” squares for the top (two each of two different fabrics. We’ll call them Fabric A and Fabric B.)

Cut one 9” square for the center diamond (Fabric C).

Cut one 9” square for the back (Fabric A, B or C — or another of your choosing).

Cut one 9” square of Insul-bright.

Press the squares of Fabric A and B in half, wrong sides together, to form triangles.

Putting it together
1. On a flat surface start layering the fabrics in this order:

Fabric C (center diamond fabric), right side down
Insul-bright (it does not have a right or wrong side)
Back fabric, right side up:

2. Next come two triangles of Fabric A, with folded edges meeting in the middle, forming a diagonal line across the square from upper right to lower left. These are Triangles 1 and 2, with Triangle 1 being the one in the upper left side:

3. Now layer the two triangles of Fabric B, with folded edges meeting in the middle, forming a diagonal line in the opposite direction:

Make sure raw edges are aligned all around. These are Triangles 3 and 4, with Triangle 3 being the one on the upper right side. With all your layers in place, Triangles 3 and 4 are the only ones you see.

4. Pull back the upper top left corner of Triangle 3 to expose the two pieces of Fabric A underneath:

5. Pull back the upper right corner of Triangle 1 (Fabric A) and tuck Triangle 3 underneath it. It should look like this:

6. Pull back the lower bottom right corner of Triangle 4 to expose the two pieces of Fabric A underneath:

7. Pull back the lower left corner of Triangle 2 and tuck Triangle 4 underneath it.

You now have an X design, with two triangles of Fabric A opposite each other and two triangles of Fabric B opposite each other:

It may seem a little vague as you’re reading it for the first time but when you are actually arranging the triangles, it should become very clear.

8. Use Wonder Clips around all four sides to hold the layers in place:

Check the back to make sure the fabric is smooth with no puckers:

9. Using a walking foot, start in the middle of any side and stitch a 3/8” seam around the entire square. Stop just before the corner where the folded edges meet, pivot, and take two stitches diagonally across the corner, pivoting again to stitch the next straight side. Sew a few stitches beyond the original starting point:

Clip the threads.

Here’s a close-up of one corner showing the two diagonal stitches:

10. Using a rotary cutter or sharp scissors, trim 1/8” from the stitched edge. Clip across corners. I trimmed from the back for the simple reason that I could see my stitching lines more easily:

11. Insert fingers through folded edges of the center and turn hot pad right side out. Carefully poke the corners with a bone folder or other gently pointed instrument. Because of the bulk, you’ll get softly rounded corners:

Press the hot pad.

12. Turn back the folded edge of each triangle in the center to form a flap, with the widest part of the flap at the center (about ¾”), tapering to almost nothing at the outer edges. Press all four flaps down, exposing the center diamond shape of Fabric C:

Optional:  Stitch around the flaps through all thicknesses, using a straight or decorative machine stitch, to permanently anchor the flaps:

I strongly recommend this extra step, as it helps keep the shape of the hot pad if it is machine washed and dried.

Here’s a look at the back:

It looks good enough from the back to be reversible!

This hot pad looks right at home in my kitchen:

The only thing it’s missing is a mate.

Notes
1. Use the same fabric for all four sides of the top – or four different ones for a scrappy look. It’s up to you!

2. The hot pads can be made larger or smaller. For example, if you have a stack of pre-cut 10″ squares from a single line of fabric, you can make Folded Flap Hot Pads that finish at 9″ — or cut the squares down to 9″ so they finish like mine at about 8″ square. Just remember that the finished hot pad will be 1″ smaller than the starting size of your cut squares.

3. The center “diamond,” cut from a square, is the focal point of the hot pad. Think about the possibilities for fussy-cut centers! Perhaps you are wondering if the bright yellow blossom in the center of my sample hot pad was fussy-cut. Why yes, as a matter of fact it was.

4. For a look at a pair of Folded Flap Hot Pads I made years ago and finished just last month, see this post.

 

 

 

Posted in folded flap hot pads, home dec, hot pads, tutorial, update | 1 Comment

It’s a Wrap: Wonderful World

Happy New Year, friends! The year 2024 is a wrap and so is my final finish of the year, Wonderful World, so named because the text print in the quilt contains the lyrics to “What a Wonderful World,” first recorded and made famous by Louis Armstrong:

Truth be told, I didn’t finish hand-stitching the label to the back until today but I hope you will indulge me and let me count it as a finish for 2024.

The photo above and the following ones were taken late this afternoon as the weak winter light was waning but I think you can get a good idea of how my third version of the free Ribbon Box quilt pattern turned out.

Here’s a flat shot of the front . . .

. . . and of the back:

It measures 51″ x 64½” and contains six prints from the “Gingham Foundry” line of fabrics by Riley Blake that came out in 2021.

Even though I was in a hurry to finish this quilt, I took the extra step of adding a contrasting ring to my trademark round quilt label:

And where is Coco, my photobombing cat who can usually be found lounging on a newly finished quilt? She has spent a good part of the afternoon on the Dear Husband’s lap while he watched college football games on TV.

I’ve already decided that Wonderful World is going to be my new go-to lap quilt so you can expect to see a photo in the near future of Her Majesty — Coco’s full name is Princess Cordelia — in slumber and/or repose.

Thank you all for continuing to follow me at First Light Designs! It cheers me so much to see your kind comments and spurs me to keep creating with fabric and posting about it.

All the best to you in 2025!

 

 

 

Posted in cats, family, update | 7 Comments

“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

Do you know that lovely song written in 1947 by Frank Loesser? If not, you owe it to yourself to listen to the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald’s lush rendition. You can do that right here. This New Year’s Eve I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my final quilt finish of the year, Wonderful World. It will be the subject of my first post of 2025.

In the meantime, here are a few images of our decorating at the Portland White House to keep the holiday vibe going. I love seeing the elaborate decorations some of my fellow quilters have posted on their blogs and Instagram pages, especially because my decorating seems to get more minimal every year. We do keep our decorations up until Twelfth Night (January 5 in 2025) so we have a few more days to enjoy them.

I bought this lovely wreath at Trader Joe’s in early December and added the clusters of red bells:

We had the exterior of our house painted this year. The door and mailbox were painted a lovely shade of green. The lights you see reflected in the door and windows are icicle lights on the curved arch on the front porch. From the sidewalk you can see our tiny tree and my little round quilt, Holliberry Circle:

Here’s a closer look:

From her perch a very relaxed Coco has a view out the front door:

My other Christmas quilt, Tis the Season, is currently on rotation on the sofa:

The Dear Husband and I wish you all a safe and Happy New Year. I’ll be back in 2025!

 

 

 

 

Posted in cats, family, home dec, Quatrefoil, Ribbon Box quilt, update, wall hanging, wonky Dresden neighborhood | 5 Comments

‘Tis the Season . . .

. . . to be crafty. Yes, the holidays are winding down but crafting useful and beautiful items is never out of season, right? These cheerful hot pads in the traditional Christmas colors of red and green are right in style all year round:

Pair of Hot Pads, Finishing at 8″ Square

When my twin Diane was visiting over Thanksgiving, we went through project bins in my sewing room, deciding which projects I should finish and which I should recycle or donate. In one bin I was surprised to find a pair of hot pads that were almost completely finished. All that was missing was the final step of stitching through the layers to hold them in place.

Based on my notes found in the bin, I probably made these back in 2011 when I was teaching a class at the Pine Needle Quilt Shop, now home to the Lake Oswego branch of Montavilla Sewing Center. I didn’t want them anymore but Diane sure did so I promised to finish them before she went home. Both of us forgot all about them until well after she returned home to Georgia in early December.

Each hot pad is made from six 9″ squares of cotton fabric and a 9″ square of InsulBright, an insulating thermal batting. Here’s a close-up of one before the final step of stitching through the layers:

The stitching is optional but I always recommend it because it helps keep the shape of the hot pad if it’s machine washed and dried. And I like the way it looks from the back:

Off they went in the mail to Diane last week. They arrived yesterday so now I can show them to you.

 

 

 

Posted in family, home dec, hot pads, update | 6 Comments

Wonderful World, Quilted

It’s always a pleasure to show you one of my quilts after it comes back from the longarm quilter. Once again Karlee at SewInspired2Day has worked her magic. Here’s a look at my latest quilt, Wonderful World, trimmed and ready to bind:

You probably already know that this quilt is based on the free pattern Ribbon Box by Cloud 9 Fabrics. It’s my third version of the pattern.

How about a close-up of the quilting? Happy to oblige:

I was searching for a quilt design that was lighthearted and loopy, capturing the feeling of clouds since the text print features images of nature — including “clouds of white” — in the lyrics to the song “What A Wonderful World.” I came across a quilt motif by Anne Bright Designs and knew it would be perfect for this quilt. Ironically the name of her design is “Storm Cloud” but in my view there’s nothing stormy about it.

I always ask Karlee to extend the quilting a bit beyond the edges of my quilt top:

Why? For one thing it makes it easier to apply the binding because the outer edges are anchored by the stitching. It also gives me the option of making a wider binding if I choose. For example, I could trim the quilt 1/4″ beyond the edge of the back to make a 1/2″ wide binding.

A couple more close-ups, first of the front . . .

. . . and then of the back:

You can’t see much of the quilting in this full photo of the back but trust me when I say that it looks terrific:

Likewise, you can’t see much of the quilting in the next photo but it does show you the resident feline staking her claim:

With my binding strips already cut and sewn together, my plan is to get the binding and label done in the next few days so I can claim a final finish for 2024.

 

 

 

Posted in cats, Ribbon Box quilt, update | 4 Comments

Blue on Blue

If you were a teenager in the 1960s, as I was, you probably remember a hit song by Bobby Vinton called “Blue on Blue.” Bobby was singing about heartache but I’m singing — well, writing — about my new oven mitts.  Behold:

The other day I spotted a tiny hole in one of my old mitts. I don’t know how it got there but it was enough to prompt me to make a new one (and of course I had to have a matching pair). My fabric of choice was a lovely vintage blue-on-blue print that I won recently at a meeting of my quilt guild, the Metropolitan Patchwork Society. The print was my favorite of the four dark blue blenders in my winning bundle.

Following my own tutorial (more on that at the bottom of this post), I made a new pair. I had only a 15″ length of fabric but it was enough for two mitts. Here you see the doubled width of fabric with my freezer paper pattern on it for scale:

For the lining of the mitts I drew on this French provincial print from my precious stash of Sandy Klop’s “A Breath of Avignon” line, which I’ve had for well over a decade:

Did you happen to notice the valance fabric in my kitchen? It’s the same fabric used inside my new oven mitts. That strip of mottled navy “Shadowplay” by Maywood is for the contrast binding at the cuff.

The next photos show you how I quilted the mitt with a 1″ grid. I often quilt my mitts with random wavy lines, which goes very quickly. It takes more time to quilt a grid but it sure does look nice.

First I marked the top fabric with a 45 degree line following the diagonal mark on my cutting mat:

My favorite marking tool for dark fabrics is this Bohin mechanical chalk pencil, which gives such a nice thin line.

Then I used a 2″ wide clear plastic ruler to mark the rest of the lines in 2″ increments going in the same direction:

I repeated the marking with lines going in the other direction:

After lining up my four layers — top, 100% cotton batting, Insul-bright (an insulated heat-resistant batting), and lining — I quilted all of the lines in one direction and then all the lines in the other direction:

I chose a medium light blue thread so the quilting would stand out. By the way, I didn’t bother to pin the layers. I simply stitched a line (starting with one of the longest ones) and smoothed the bottom layer if it needed it before stitching the next line.

Next it was time to mark between the stitched line to create the 1″ grid. I could probably have eyeballed the space between the stitched lines but my obsessive-compulsive gene kicked in:

In any case, it didn’t take much time to mark the lines and move on to sewing them.

My open-toed walking foot was essential for this project. You really need to be able to see the needle going in and out of the fabric.

A close-up of both sides quilted:

The oven mitt partially sewn together . . .

. . . and now with the contrast binding at the cuff edge applied and ready to tack down:

Here’s the finished mitt, with a peek inside to see the lovely lining:


Ready to make a pair? The links below will take you to my oven mitt tutorial, broken into three parts. The first part (the Prequel) explains why I made my own pattern and how to make one that fits your own hand.

The second one (Part 1) covers fabric requirements, instructions for downloading and printing the pattern, assembling the layers, and quilting the resulting “quilt sandwich.”

The third one (Part 2) covers the sewing of the mitt and contrasting band around the cuff edge as well as the final step of tacking the band down before turning the mitt right side out.

Here you go:

21, Oven Mitts that Fit: Prequel to the Tutorial (April 13, 2021)
21, Oven Mitt Tutorial from First Light Designs, Part 1 (April 18, 2021)
21, Oven Mitt Tutorial from First Light Designs, Part 2 (April 19, 2021)

Here I am again with my new blue-on-blue oven mitts. And the blue-on-blue top I’m wearing? Total coincidence!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in home dec, Metropolitan Patchwork Society, oven mitts, tutorial, update, valance | 4 Comments

Wonderful World

Aren’t these blocks cute? They’re 8″ Sawtooth Star blocks framed with long skinny navy triangles that make the blocks twist and turn. The star blocks date back to 2021 when I bought prints from the “Gingham Foundry” line by Riley Blake — the very prints you have seen most recently in my third version of the Ribbon Box quilt pattern:

I never got beyond the first few star blocks in 2021, probably because I didn’t have a project in mind and wasn’t sufficiently thrilled with the Sawtooth Star blocks to continue making them. But there they were in my project box nestled in with the Gingham Foundry fabrics.

Then it occurred to me that I could put those orphan blocks on the back of my quilt. The idea to make them twist and turn came about through a bit of serendipity. One of my quilt students is making a t-shirt quilt and had seen a photo of one made with blocks that twisted right and left. I knew about the technique because I had taken a class almost 20 years ago — and still had the book:

Published in 1996 by Chitra Publications, Twist ‘n Turn is now out of print but I have seen a few copies for sale on the Internet (eBay, Etsy, Amazon). I finished a quilt in 2006 using this technique but now I was having trouble wrapping my head around the directions. How could I help my student if I couldn’t figure this out? The solution was to make some test blocks at home. I’m so glad I did. Not only is the process clear to me now, I wound up with blocks that I could use on the back of my quilt. Win-win!

Here’s my completed quilt backing:

It seems to me those stars are dancing their way across the quilt back.

By the way, are you wondering about the title of this post? One of the fabrics in the Gingham Foundry line — and in my quilt top — is a text print featuring the lyrics to the song “Wonderful World:”

Isn’t that the perfect name for my quilt?

 

 

 

Posted in Ribbon Box quilt, update | 4 Comments

Could This Be Love?

Speaking of the Ribbon Box quilt (which I was in my most recent post), remember when I reported developing a fondness last month for “Flower Garden,” one of the lines on the Cloud 9 Fabrics website featuring the Ribbon Box quilt pattern? As a reminder, these are the eight prints in the Flower Garden line:

You can guess what happened: I succumbed to temptation, went online, and ordered a yard each of six prints. I chose not to order two of them, knowing I had options in my stash to replace them with.

The fabrics arrived in due course and . . . well, maybe I’m not as much in love with them as I thought I would be. See, this is one of the dangers of buying fabric on the Internet. I generally buy fabric that I can see and touch. I want to know exactly what the colors look like in real life as opposed to what I see on my computer screen. But every now and then a line of fabric that has captivated me online is not to be found in a local quilt shop. Then I might take a leap of faith and order fabric sight unseen. Such is the case with Flower Garden.

Take a look at five of the six fabrics I ordered:

These fabrics turned out to be much darker than pictured on the website. See the two fabrics in the second row? What I thought was a coral background on the one on the left is actually a dark orange and what I thought was a gold leaf print on the one on the right is actually a darker mustard-y color.

Here’s a shot of the main focus fabric featuring birds and cranes on an indigo background:

The colors in this piece are also deeper but wow, the design is really spectacular. And I have to say the companion prints look great with it. Just imagine the possibilities for fussycutting birds and cranes.

Wouldn’t these images make lovely inset circles? Playing around with some circles I had previously cut in freezer paper, I auditioned a bird and a crane . . .

. . . and then two birds and a crane . . .

. . . and then three birds and no crane:

The companion prints to the main focus fabric could easily be combined to make a striking quilt or table runner or wall hanging. I’m going to ponder about what to make with these fabrics. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

In the meantime, I’ll see if I can learn to love these fabrics just a bit more. Do you ever buy fabrics online and then find they don’t live up to your expectations?

 

 

 

Posted in Ribbon Box quilt, update | 3 Comments

What Have We Here?

Can it possibly be?  A third version of the Ribbon Box quilt??

Yes, friends. This is what I have been up to lately. Last month, after completing Beribboned, my second version of the free Ribbon Box pattern from Cloud 9 Fabrics, I was working on a blog post describing how I eliminated several seamlines by sewing the quilt top together in three sections rather than nine rows and how I changed the original pattern’s dimensions (45″ x 59″) to come up with a larger quilt top (51″ x 65″). But I ran into difficulty with my post-in-progress because I hadn’t taken enough notes during the construction of Beribboned to complete the post to my satisfaction.

What to do? Why, make another version, of course. And I had just the fabrics in mind. In 2021 Riley Blake Fabrics came out with a lovely line called “Gingham Foundry” designed by My Mind’s Eye. Montavilla Sewing Center in Lake Oswego, where I teach, carried several fabrics from the line and I quickly scooped them up.

The Gingham Foundry line was anchored by the large-scale floral on a dark blue background (first vertical ribbon in the photo above) but the design that made my heart sing — quite literally! — was this text print featuring the lyrics to “What a Wonderful World:”

The song, with words and music by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele, was made famous by the one and only Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, who recorded it in 1967. Others have recorded it but Satchmo’s version is by far the most well known.

I loved the idea of incorporating the text print in a Ribbon Box quilt. This was my initial fabric pull:

I added another print from the Gingham Foundry collection that I found online last year and pulled two other fabrics from my stash, a dusty blue polka dot and a gold tone-on-tone blender. Here are my fabric choices already cut into strips or rolled up to measure roughly 5″ wide, laid out in my planned setting:

After looking at that photo, I could see that the gold blender (fourth vertical strip) was much too strong so I rummaged around in my drawer of large scraps and found a softer shade of gold that seemed just right. Lo and behold, there was just enough of it to make a ribbon.

Here are the eight ribbon prints cut into 5½”-wide strips and laid out on my ironing board. The replacement gold fabric is on the upper right. I labeled the stacks 1V, 2V, 3V, 4V for vertical and 1H, 2H, 3H, 4H for horizontal (though somehow I got horizontal rows 2 and 3 reversed in this photo):

I also cut my background fabrics and labeled them by size:

This really helped in the assembly of the sections. Now take a look at the three sections, ready to be sewn together:

Notice anything unusual?

In vertical rows 1, 3, and 4, I have inserted what I call “placeholders,” scraps of fabric sewn with the back side showing. Once the three sections are sewn together, I’m going to replace those seamed pieces with single strips of the appropriate ribbon fabric to keep the flow of the fabric designs uninterrupted. In my next post I’ll show you how I did that. Do come back to see!

Posted in Ribbon Box quilt, update | 1 Comment

It’s a Wrap: Beribboned

Beribboned is complete — and I am so happy with it!

I finished tacking down the binding yesterday and added a label to the simply pieced back:

A close-up of the label:

(I took a lot of photos while making the label so I can show you in a future post how I made my trademark round label and added a ring around it.)

When I make a label with an outer ring, I sometimes stitch in the ditch around the seam if the quilting motif suggests it might not be too obvious on the front. In the next photo you can see the circle on the front . . .

. . . but I know it will totally blend into the overall quilting when the quilt is laundered.

You can probably tell all of the above shots were taken indoors. It’s rainy in Portland today but there was a break in the clouds and even a spot of sun so my visiting twin sister Diane and I quickly headed to the back yard for a photo op in good light:

If you look in the lower left corner of the quilt you can probably see the circle where I stitched the label on the back — but I’m guessing you wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t pointed it out.

Beribboned is based on a free pattern called Ribbon Box from Cloud 9 Fabrics. I knew it was the perfect pattern to display three fabrics from Mo Bedell’s “Party Dress” line for Blue Hill, fabrics that have been in my stash for close to 15 years. The other five fabrics in the ribbons were also from my stash, as was the background and binding fabric.

Right now Beribboned measures 51″ x 65″ but it will shrink a bit after going through the washer and dryer, which is where it’s headed shortly.

Did I mention that Beribboned was inspected by Coco, who also likes it very much?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in cats, family, Ribbon Box quilt, update | 6 Comments