If you're looking for DIY gift ideas, potholders are a great option!
To mkae this Christmas gift, I Googled "potholder tutorial" and found absolutely tons of them. So many that I became somewhat overwhelmed and decided to just kind of wing it. So I'm not going to link a particular tutorial, but believe me, they're out there.
But to be honest, you don't really need a tutorial if you've ever made a quilt. I had the basic idea of how to make a potholder, I just needed to know how much batting to put in the middle. I also liked looking at all the tutorials (especially if you Google it as an image search) just for inspiration.
So, all I needed to buy for this project was 100% cotton batting. Polyester will melt. I used three layers of the cotton. Some people use some kind of batting (I forget the name) with a metal content for the middle layer, but I wanted mine to remain microwaveable.
This was my first time trying the "stacked blocks/bricks/books/bolts" block. I totally recommend making potholders for experimenting with different quilt blocks! It's also a simple way for some scrap busting.
I cut all three layers of batting, my backs or bottoms, and my two quilt blocks to be slightly larger than 8" by 8". I don't remember how long I cut the handle/hook thingy.
To construct these two potholders, I basically made an inside-out quilt sandwich and stitched around the edge. Then turned it right side out, then stitched around the edge again, then did some different quilting in rainbow thread. It worked OK, but I think next time I make potholders, I'll use bias-bound edges instead.
So, super-quick and easy, and a great last-minute DIY gift idea. I'm even planning on making some for my own kitchen.
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