How Long Does It Take To Make A Potholder?

Or

Why It Seems I Never Finish Anything

This first photo shows what I started with this morning.  A quilt sandwich for a potholder, all cut and pin-basted together.  Ready for a little free motion stitching, and then finishing up.  Oh, and I also had the binding strips already cut.  Not sewn together, but at least cut out.

So why did it take so #(%&;@"?#*{$@ long to finish?!?

First, of course, I got a practice quilting square.  And I changed my sewing machine foot to a quilting foot.  I tried a few designs, checked my thread colors, etc.  Eventually, I decided I'm not very good at free-motion designs this morning; think I'll use some straight-line quilting.  So I changed back to a regular quarter-inch foot and engaged my walking foot.

I was having a few thread issues, so I decided it was time to clean and oil the machine, and replace the needle.  Boy, was I right on this one!!  Lots of linty fuzz came out of the machine.  Necessary, but more time spent.

I got the binding strips sewn together and pressed in half with no problem.  I decided I needed to make a loop on the potholder, but wasn't sure what size to make it.  I ended up cutting a strip 1 1/2" wide, folded it in half, then folded the sides in to the center and stitched it.  These are the leftover pieces.  It was a good size!

I decided to do cross-hatching on the potholder, one inch apart.  So I made a chalk mark from one corner to the other, then used a handy drawing guide to draw one-inch lines all across.

I sewed all the diagonal lines, then realized that I'd forgotten the hanging loop!  So I sneaked it in on a corner where I hadn't done too much stitching yet.  All is good.  Then I marked the crosswise diagonal lines and sewed them.

"Back side" of the pot holder.

Next I was left wondering how I would put the binding on, with that loop sticking out???  Okay.  Ripped out the loop, and realized I need to sew it on as part of the binding, not before the binding.

Now, finishing the other side of the binding.

My little Clover clips seemed like the perfect thing for the job, so I grabbed my little triangular container (thank you, SisterStitches!).  Where are all my clips?  Must be in some project bag somewhere.  Fortunately, there are enough for my use today. 

And finally, several hours later (I'm embarrassed to say how many hours), I have an approximation of a pot holder finished.  Even the little loop looks close to right! The photo is at an angle, which is why it resembles a parallelogram, not a square.  But I swear, it really is square!

Oh, and yes, that is marijuana fabric.  It's a POT-holder.  Get it!?!