Wednesday, February 11, 2026

What To Do With Those Leftover Blocks and Bits!

This and the following are some of the many many potholders I made out of leftover blocks from different quilts.  I was trying out a new binding  technique as binding small things neatly is difficult. After about 30 tries, I became somewhat successful!!  Still need to be viewed from a distance but are functional as potholders at least!!




 






This technique starts as machine binding usually starts with a folded 2 1/2 strips folded in half and sewed around the outside of the back of the potholder.  How it differs is that you leave a longish strip that you don't sew down and then you sew all the way arond right up to where you started.  Then the fun begins!  You position the beginning piece perpendicular over the ending piece.  This is not for the faint of heart as there is a lot of fabric.  After about 10 tries, I finally started using a pin to hold it in place for sewing and made sure I had a lot of overlap.

With some luck, you sew  diagonally across and then trim.  Besides just trimming to 1/4 inch, I also lop off the top piece and don't open the seam but push it so nothing shows and then sew down from the front side as always!

I saw this technique on my quilt club FB page.  I had to reference it a couple of times to get it right.

This was another technique I picked up from my quilt club FB page!  The post just suggested you use leftover pieces of quilted fabric leftover from projects to make glasses cases.  

I had a seven inch piece of quilted fabric that has been lying around in my sewing room for years and years.  I ordered some seven inch zippers and made small bags and a glasses case using up every inch!!

This is not what a palm treed in SE North Carolina is supposed to look like!  Of course, there was nothing to do but sew as snow stops everything outside of your house!