Folded Star Table TopperBlog by Bethany MillerHello to sewers everywhere! I'm Bethany Miller of PlumEasy Patterns. When my mom, Deborah, started PlumEasy her first pattern was the Easy Folded Star Hot Pad. It is an 8-inch four layer hot pad. For years people have been asking us if would make a larger sized hot pad pattern. Well, we've decided to just show you how it's done. I've teamed up with RJR Fabrics as part of their "What Shade Are You?" blog hop. All of the fabrics used in this project are from their gorgeous line of Supreme Solids (which are an absolute dream to sew with and come in so many wonderful colors). These are the ones I've chosen. Fabric Colors: Flamingo 338, Night 280, Hot Pink 217, Electric Blue 296, Rio 311, Marvelous 332, and Golden 285RJR has been gracious enough to give away a bundle of these fabrics to one lucky winner. Details on how to enter for a chance to win are at the end of this post.We're going to be working with the original pattern for the Easy Folded Star Hot Pad (which can be found here in our store) and following the instructions for the size of squares we will be cutting as well as using the interfacing template provided as the foundation to the piece we are building.I worked with a large square of plain, thin interfacing taped to my cutting mat so I could use the lines on my mat for reference. Using a glue stick, I glued the original printed interfacing template to the blank interfacing and made sure to center them over the lines I could see on the cutting mat. Working from the outer octagon lines of the printed interfacing template, I drew a short line on the interfacing out every half inch. Once this was done I drew a diagonal line from "point to point" across the octagon and extended a few inches outward onto the interfacing. I then drew in half inch increment lines on top of all eight newly drawn lines. These are the lines we use to sit the unfinished edge of our prairie points on, to line them up in our hot pad. The center line that runs through the half inch incremental lines will be aligned with the center fold that runs through the middle of the prairie points. And now to make the prairie points. SOOOOOOOooo many prairie points. Here's how many I made:Layer 1: four prairie points each.Layers 2-6: eight prairie points each.Layers 7-11: 16 prairie points each.Now we can begin to build our hot pad just as we would if we were following the instructions in the pattern. Complete the first six layers per the pattern instructions, moving onto the lines we drew for layers 5 and 6. This is an 8 point star with prairie points every 45 degrees. Once we've finished the sixth layer we will need to use additional prairie points on each layer to be sure we cover all of our raw edges.Remember, if we're following the pattern instructions, we haven't done any sewing yet. This is all being held in place with a glue stick. If your sewing machine has a hard time handling lots of layers it might be a good idea to shop right now and take the whole piece to your sewing machine, still glued to the interfacing, and stitch in the ditch through the middle of the prairie points to hold everything in place.On the seventh layer we will being gluing 16 prairie points using the "point to point" lines we drew in earlier. The first point won't be concentric like all of the other layers have been thus far. As you can see in the photo above, it covers the two layers below and sits halfway in the layer below it. It looks funny now, but this will look a lot better once we get more layers on top of layer seven. Keep gluing these prairie points around until all 16 are in place. Continue in this way for layers 8-11. I had originally only drawn six more half-inch increment lines onto my template, but when I finished my 10th layer I thought it needed one more so I drew one more ring of half-inch marks and added and 11th layer. I think its stunning, if I do say so myself. And these RJR solids absolutely glow. Now it's time to sew. This project is so thick that it doesn't need any batting, but I did sandwich a layer of muslin between the backing fabric and the interfacing. I held these in place with a glue stick rather than trying to pin them in place (again, too many layers to try that). Try to match threads as best as possible. For this project I used clear thread. Using a walking foot and an open-toed foot if possible, begin sewing in the ditch of the "long points" (the ones that can be followed all the way across the piece from one edge to the opposite one) from the edge to the center. Back stitch to lock threads at center.The ditches that only have five layers and then stop abruptly can be stitched from the edge, to the point of the 7th layer, and then backstitch. Try to not stitch onto the 6th later on the "short points."Once all of the points have been stitched in the ditch the piece needs to be made into an actual circle, and not a hexadecagon (I had to look that one up). Sewing about 1/8" to the inside of the last layer of prairie points, baste around the edge of your project, being sure to "round up" the points where the prairie points overlap. The excess backing fabric and prairie points can now be trimmed away by hand with scissors. (Use heavy duty scissors to cut through all these layers.)And that's it! Bind as desired. I made two sets of tiny bias piping and added that to the edge before I added the binding. I love the finished project and can't wait to add it to my collection of mini quilts that will hang above my sewing space at home.Finished project measures 15" in diameter.The What Shade are You? Blog Hop 2016 giveaway, generously provided for by RJR Fabrics, will be held on my Instragram account (@letsgoliftandsew). Grab your device and head over there to enter. Giveaway closes at 4pm PST on Wednesday, June 1st.
