Insulated Hexagon Hot Pads

fronts

I thought I'd make insulated trivets for Christmas gifts and myself.  I needed one because I've been using a sample square of carpet tile to rest my french press on when I make coffee  for the last year :|

I'd used the hexagon coaster tutorial from Canoe Ridge Creations from the Festival of Hexagons series a few months ago and thought the basics of it would lend itself well to this project too.

For the center I just enlarged a single hexagon in a word document until it was 2.5" per side, and  5.25" across at its widest point before printing it out (I couldn't get the custom templates at Incompetech.com to work that day).  I cut 2.5" by 6" strips of coordinating fabrics , and one layer of Insulated batting and one layer of cotton batting for each  hot pad.

backs

The two for gifts I decided to bind & made 2" binding out of Kona solids. It was interesting working with the hexagon corners, they're a bit more tricky square corners, & the second one went better than the first. These ones just all got sandwiched together before sewing.

The funky blue and orange one is for me (never pictured combining those two colors for one item) and I just sewed it together with right sides facing each other, leaving most of one side open,  turned it right side out, pressed it, then stuffed it with the two layers of batting (trimmed down to fit).  It was bit of a challenge to get all the corners to get lined up exactly, if I tried it again I'd probably baste the batting layers together before attempting that.



They're about 8" across, and big enough for potholders.  I just used mine for the first time and managed to dribble chai all over it as I was straining the ginger and cinnamon out - serves me right for making chai from scratch I guess!

I don't mind if I do!