Looking for a project to make from a small quilt block? Quilted potholders can be functional art or purely decorative. Potholders typically range from five to ten inches. For my potholders I used a six-inch quilt block and a nine-inch quilt block.
The first step is to make a quilt block. For this potholder, I used my Wine for Two quilt block pattern. I made a six-inch quit block and then cut one-and-a-half-inch strips to sew as a border.
Next you need to make a loop for hanging the potholder. Cut a piece of fabric approximately one inch by five inches. Iron it in half and then iron in the two sides and fold over. topstitch the open edge.
Sew the loop in one corner of the potholder. If you want the potholder to hang on an angle, make sure the loop is angled in at forty-five degrees.
Next cut a backing fabric and a piece of batting to the same size as the potholder front.
Pin everything together to sew. Place the front and back right sides facing each other. Make sure the loop is on the inside. Then add the batting. It will be on the outside for now. Sew three sides together and then turn right-side-out.
After turning the potholder right-side out, fold in the open side and topstitch all the way around the perimeter. The potholder is finished!
You can also choose to do some more topstitching on your potholder as seen here in the music note potholder. This too is a six-inch quilt block with borders made from my Music Note quilt block pattern. I topstitched around the outer edges of the two quarter notes. I also used a thicker batting for this potholder causing the stitching on the music notes to give it a slightly debossed impression.
The next potholder is made using my Coffee for Two quilt block pattern. It is a nine-inch quilt block with no borders. This made things a little trickier on the sides because I lost a bit of the coffee mug handles due to slightly larger seams. I used a 3/8-inch seam to sew the layers of the potholder together. I made the backing the same fabric as the coffee mugs to help make up for that eighth-inch loss. I quilted this potholder with vertical lines.
Quilted potholders can be quick and fun projects to make out of quilt blocks you love but can’t quite envision as a full quilt.