Mother's Day Potholders

This weeks sewing has been all about Mother's Day. I made Hexagon Potholders for my mom and a table runner for my mother-in-law.

These are the potholders I made for my mom. I made a template to paper piece them...although I am guessing there is an easier way out there to make them. I saw a picture and was inspired and instead of buying the book for the direction to make a table runner when I really wanted potholders I decided to wing it. Below you can see how I did it.

Once all my pieces were marked I sewed my fabric, trimmed them to the size of the papers, and sewed them together. I sewed the 3 bottom pieced together, then the top three pieced together. Then I was able to sew the two halves together using a straight line! No tricky seams. I left the paper on until I was finished with all of that.

You will need six equilateral triangles for each potholder. The sides of my triangles were 6.25 inches. IF you aren't sure how to make equilateral triangles you can check out this video from Late Night Quilter. Once you have all 6 triangles cut I began to mark my lines. I drew a straight line 1.75 inches from the bottom, this is my border. If I was going to change something I would make this smaller...maybe only 1.25 inches from the bottom. I then found the center of that line  and drew my two triangles. (If you are wondering why there are two lines for the number 4 piece it is because I realized I was going to lose my points if I didn't lower my line! Be careful of this!)

Finally, I cut 2.25 inch binding strips and machine sewed them to the front, flipped them and hand sewed them to the back. I do all of my bindings this way...mostly because this is how I have been taught...but also because I have tried machine binding projects and I never like the way it turns out.

I then made my quilt sandwich, I used thermal batting and normal batting in the middle of each one. I pinned in each color and used my walking foot to quilt .25 inches away on both sides of the main diagonal seams,  and the outer edge of the star points and the borders.

Because I know that my mom will see this eventually I want to say, "I love you! You are a great mom and one of my best friends. I appreciate all that you do! "

Did you give or receive any crafty gifts for Mother's Day this year?