Quilt as You Go: How to Create a Decorative Hot Pad

Machine quilting for beginners can be intimidating if you have never done any kind of quilting in the past, or you consider your skills to be more sewing oriented than quilting. However, there are several fun quilting methods, including one known as quilt as you go, that allows you to do basic straight line stitching and create fun projects that are sewn and quilted at the same time- Ashley Hough shows you how.

Supplies

For quilt as you go projects, like the hot pad made in this tutorial, you don’t need any special supplies other than fabric and batting. Ashley shows you how to begin with a large square or rectangle of backing fabric and how to place your batting onto the center of it. She explains why you want to have a square or rectangle of backing fabric that is larger than your piece of batting.

Ashley then shows that the entire top of the hot pad is made from simple strips of fabric. She shows that the strips of fabric you choose to use do not have to be the same width, or even cut straight. She explains where and how to position the first strip of fabric on top of the batting and backing fabric. Ashley then shows how to add the next piece, simply stitching it together with the first, right sides together.

As she demonstrates adding more and more pieces she explains how the quilt as you go technique is working to secure the strips of fabric to the hot pad top and stitch through all of the layers, essentially quilting it and giving it the same look as if you had done stitch in the ditch quilting. She shows how to add the strips straight as well as how to add them at an angle to create a different look for this fun sewing project idea.

Once all of the strips have been added to the top of the hot pad, Ashley shows how to square up the edges and then explains how to add a binding.