Holiday Hot Pads – A Great Beginner Project!

Another Thanksgiving is over and I hope yours was happy and healthy. We had a family dinner with good food and lots of pie! Every time we have a large dinner, I wish I had more trivets and hot pads to protect my tabletop from hot dishes. I’ve decided to get busy, so I’ll be ready for the next holiday dinner! I call this project an oversized trivet but if you think it looks like a placemat, you’re not too far off. I made this to generously go under a 13” x 9” glass baking dish so the finished measurement is 17” x 13”, which is in the size range of a placement. It’s easy to resize the hot pad to fit the size dishes you have. You simply change the size of the starting rectangles.

Hot Pad Supplies

I’m making this hot pad using Christmas fabric. By changing the fabric and/or the color scheme, you can tailor this project to any holiday or season that suits you. Use fabrics that can be laundered and pre-wash them so you can throw the finished wash in the wash when you need to. This is a fat-quarter friendly project. You’ll need one for the front fabric and another one for the back.

• Fabric for the front of the trivet: 19” x 14”
• Fabric for the back of the trivet: 19” x 14”
• Batting: 19” x 14” – I used Wrap-N-Zap by Pellon
• Bias strips for binding, 2 ½” x 2 yards – join them to make one large strip
• Polyester or cotton thread for quilting and construction
• Temporary spray adhesive
• Presser Feet
  • All-purpose presser foot for the quilting. You may also use the walking foot but for a project this small, an all-purpose foot works. If you have a bit of shifting as you stitch, no problem. We will trim the edges after quilting.
  • Quarter inch patchwork foot – I used this to attach the binding.
  • Open embroidery foot – This was the perfect foot to do the final stitching on the binding. I snug the edge of the binding up to the inside to of the foot, the adjust the needle position tp the far left. It gives me perfect placement for the blanket stitch along the edges of the binding.

Simple Quilting

Make a quilt sandwich with the batting between the fabrics, right sides out. Use temporary spray adhesive to hold the layers together. Stitch all over the surface of the quilt sandwich as you please. I used my favorite easy quilting stitch. It is #1398 in the quilt menu on my BERNINA 790. It is so simple to stitch, but repeats an elegant curve over and over, making it a step up from the simple straight stitch. When the quilting is finished, trim the hot pad to 17” x 13”. Using a bowl or cup, round the four corners of the hot pad.

Binding the Edge

Fold the binding in half lengthwise and press. Fold one end at a 45-degree angle and press. Starting on one side, place the folded end on the edge and stitch the binding using quarter inch patchwork foot. As you come to a corner, clip the binding strip about every 1/4″. Do not clip into the fabric more than 3/8″ to make sure the clips are covered by the binding when the pad is finished. The clips make it easy to shape the binding along the curved corners. When you come back to the starting point of the binding, trim the unfolded edge as needed and tuck it down into the folded edge.Continue stitching to secure the binding. Once the binding is attached, wrap it to the back of the pad and stitch it in place. Use a running stitch, zigzag stitch, or another side to side stitch. I used a blanket stitch which works great for this, however, I stitched with black thread on black fabric, so you cannot see the results. Next time I will use a red thread and enjoy the look of the stitching.

This over-sized hot pad is a great gift for the holidays or wedding showers when paired with kitchen utensils and/or casserole dishes. Hope you like it and as always,