Log cabin style quilted potholder tutorial

Yesterday I should have been canning up green beans, but I didn't feel like it. I've been up about every 30 minutes throughout the night for the past 4-5 nights and I'm just worn out. We think the baby girl is cutting teeth again because she's running a low-grade fever, off her food, and nursing a LOT.

So...instead I decided to try my hand at quilting. This was my first quilting project and I loved it - absolutely LOVED it. I think I'm hooked.

I had received a set of log cabin style quilted pot holders and hot pad in a craft swap a few years ago and really like them a lot and thought, "Hey, I think I can do that."

So I finally did.

It's really pretty darn simple, too!

The first step is to cut out a bunch of 1.5" strips of fabric.



I selected eight different patterns in two main colors - teal and brown.



Next, I cut out a 10" square piece of fabric to use as backing.



Then I cut two 8" squares of old towel. You could use quilt batting, but I didn't want to dig through my fabric closet to find my batting, so I went with the convenient option of cutting up an old worn-out towel instead.



Then I cut one of the 1.5" wide strips of fabric into a 1.5" square. This is the middle of your pattern.

I cut out a second 1.5" square of a contrasting fabric.

Using a 1/4" seam I sewed the two together - right sides together. I finger pressed the seam open.



Then I cut a second piece of the same fabric as the 2nd square and, using a 1/4" seam, sewed that piece to the other pieces - right sides together again.



I then continued to piece together and sew strips of 1.5" fabric in alternating color blocks until the log cabin pattern was completed.























Once the log cabin block was sewn together, I placed the quilt block and the two layers of old towel on top of the backing piece. The order has the quilt block on top - right side up, the two layers of toweling, and the backing - right side down.

The quilt block and toweling are centered on top of the backing.



Then I pinned them all together.

I sewed through the four layers following the seams of the pieces in the quilt block.





The pattern looked something like this on the back:



Then I folded up the edges of the backing to create a binding. I sewed these down on the top of the pot holder.









Cutting the strips took a while, but sewing up the pot holder went pretty quickly. I'd estimate under a half hour of sewing time. In the afternoon I was able to sew up two potholders and sit and rock a nursing/napping little girl for two hours. :)