Hot Pads

I finally got tired of my ratty hot pads that needed to be thrown away.  Instead of buying new ones, I decided it would be fun to make them.  I downloaded a free hot pad pattern from www.youcanmakethis.com and got started. 
The only thing I needed to buy was the cotton batting and the Insul Brite (non conductive material), which were both available at Joann's.  I already had some floral cotton fabric languishing in my stash to use for the pads and some mostly white cotton leftover from a tie dyeing project from college to use for the bias binding. 
I didn't follow the instructions completely.  I cut the squares 7" around instead of the 9".  That enabled me to make more hot pads.  The 7" squares were more than adequate for a regular hot pad.  I also didn't add the corner loop to the pads, since I never use them. 
I made sure I used a walking foot to feed all the layers evenly while sewing.  It does make a difference.  I also sewed with a denim needle because of the thickness of the layers.
Making the binding was a little time consuming but worth it.  Don't bother making it without a rotary cutter, quilting ruler, and mat, though.  Those items make cutting the bias strips easy.  After that, there's a lot of sewing of the strips together and finally all the pressing of the folds to complete the binding.
I made a total of 15 hot pads, 7 of which I gave to my mother-in-law.  It made a nice gift for her, because she's hard to get gifts for, and I knew it was something she'd use.