Patchwork potholders

 I recently purchased the book 101 patchwork potholders by Linda Causee. I had this book years ago but lost it somewhere along the way. I sat at the sewing machine in my room when I was about 19 and made several of these blocks. I made a couple into potholders. I think my mom still has one or two of the potholders. You can use this book just to learn patchwork also. You can make a bunch of the blocks as you wish and then just make them all into a quilt for that matter. But the book has directions on how to do a potholder. It suggests three layers of cotton batting. I’m not sure all of that is necessary. I only use one or two. 

When I told Kevin I got this book, he seemed excited about me making us some potholders. He mention that we don’t have any, and that we always use the kitchen towels to handle hot items. I was like- you’re right we do. We moved in here more than four months ago. And this whole time, we’ve been using kitchen towels as potholders. 

So first I traced all the shapes onto cardboard and saved all the cardboard pattern pieces in a ziplock. I picked one of the blocks in the book and cut out all the pieces including the binding. I got out my new iron and set it up so I can iron each piece as I go. With patchwork, you kind of have to do that. 

I also need to mention that Walmart had a package of cotton batting, enough to make something “queen size” on the clearance shelf for $13.  That’s enough for a lot of potholders.  

As I sewed each piece, I realized kind of quickly that the accuracy was way off. I wasn’t sure what I did wrong so I took them all apart with my seam ripper and then I noticed that the error was made with the ironing. I didn’t press them all the way open before I applied heat, and that caused it to be way uneven and the pieces were way off. 

I do sort of suck at ironing. I actually have an iron phobia. However, that little patchwork potholder stint I had at the age of 19 was pretty successful. I must have had an iron in my room. All the blocks were accurate. 

I have definitely been commented to once or twice in my life for having wrinkly clothing. 

It does give me this primal anxiety. I also know psychology basics enough to know that the way to get over it is to keep doing it. So maybe tomorrow evening, I can start over with more pieces and iron them right. Just got to convince myself that the iron can’t actually kill me, and I know how to treat it if I do burn myself. 

Here’s to some cute potholders.