African Hut Hot Pad

 Ive introduced you all to Karina before, Remember the delicious Guacamole recipe?  Yes, well she is my sister in law who is more like a sister.  I am so thankful for her friendship! 
She has recently taken up sewing and we have been having a great time sewing together.  She found a wonderful Bernina 830 Machine in Dallas on craigslist of all places and we went and picked it up for her. When she arrived from Austin last weekend we had to do a little project to show her around the machine.  We both made  African Hut quilt squares and made them into hot pads.
We both did them a bit different and I embroidered her name and sent her home with mine to beef up her hot pad drawer. 

This African Hut Pattern comes from the Kaffe Fasset Book
Kaffe Fasset Quilt Road.  There are so many ways that you can switch this quilt block up to look differently.  I started with a log-cabin square for the center of my hut.

You can do them all sorts of ways add doors or windows, the options are endless.  I think it is super  cute whichever way you decide to do it.

The secret to making this block is that if you make your roof line first - everything else is a straight line.  I suggest using the HST method for this.  (half-square triangle)  Cut one square of sky fabric and one square from the roof fabric.  Check out this tutorial on how they are made from p.s. i quilt.  Once you have sewn them and cut them properly, rotate the roof fabrics together and go from there.  Everything else is a straight line and you can make your own design decisions about where you want the grass to start and stop.  Your horizon line can be lower,  you could even add more sky to the top if you prefer.

In order to make this into a hot pad, you basically are making a sandwich!  Can you tell food affects everything I do?  Cut a double layer of thickness of padding (consider recycling old towels or mattress pads for this).  Cut a backing in the same size as your block and pad.  In order to not have to bind the hot pad as seen here:  Stack in this order.  Padding first, right side up of backing, and quilt square wrong side up.  Pin the project together.  Baste these together.  Now trim away the exess batting material and sew the sandwich together much like you would a pillow, leaving an opening to turn your project right side out.  Remove your baste stitches so that you can turn it inside out.    Hand stitch together the opening.
If you want to put a binding on the Hot-pad, you will stack it in the order seen.  Backing fabric first, batting, and then the quilt block right side up.  Pin your sandwich together and baste.  Quilt as desired then sew on your binding.  I wish I were better at binding.  It is something that I have not mastered, which is why I suggest the first option.  Otherwise google some tutorials for binding and tackle it!

The Kindle Cover

 While our friends Phil and Lanora were in visiting from New Mexico, Lanora and I decided we were going to go to a local Quilt store called the Quilt Asylum.  It is well loved in this area and has become one of my favorites.  Located in McKinney Texas, we had to drive a little ways but it was totally worth it. 

I picked up a few fat quarters of fabric and Nordie picked up a pattern by Atkinson Designs and the fabric for this Reader Wrap. The link above is a direct link to this pattern.  I have to admit that I wouldn't have taken on this challenge without her by my side.  I had never tried anything like this before but now that I have it under my belt, I feel quite good about trying out another pattern by this company.  It was a fun challenge!

I loved Nordie's choice of fabrics,  Kaffe Fasset designed these.  I love all of his books on quilts.  His fabrics are so

 vibrant and beautiful.  His books have inspired many of the projects on my "design wall" (which is better known as my craft room floor). 

While this was definitely not cheaper than just buying a Kindle Cover,  this one was hand made and fabrics were handpicked!  I am all about the handmade, love that goes into these sort of projects!  We made great memories figuring this out, and creating it together!