Welcome to the first installment of a two-part blog series where we will be making two fun projects using Lori Holt’s Pumpkin Paper and 5″ Crazy Paper to spruce up your fall table. In Part 1, spend a cozy autumn afternoon cooking up a pair of quick Pumpkin Trivets. Then, come back to the blog on Saturday the 23rd to piece a Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner with us.
1. Gather Your Supplies
Lori Holt’s Quilt Papers are deliciously scrappy, and one Layer Cake is all you need to make these Pumpkin Trivets and the matching Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner. So, pick up a new Layer Cake or open one from your stash, and let’s get to sewing!
For this project, you will need:
- Lori Holt 10″ Pumpkin Quilt Paper
- Five 10″ squares of fabric from a Layer Cake
- A dark, medium, and a light
- Two of any color (for the backing)
- Creative Grids Square Ruler (7.5″ or bigger)
- Heat-resistant bating (we recommend Lori Holt Heat Resistant Batting)
- Clover Point 2 Point Turner
2. Cut Your Fabric
The Pumpkin Papers are designed to get gourd-geous cuts every time! Set aside the two 10″ backing squares and iron a Pumpkin Paper to the right side of the dark 10″ square. Once attached, stack the dark, medium, and light squares with the right sides facing up and the edges even.
Following the instructions in the package, use a rotary cutter and ruler to cut out your picture-perfect pumpkin pieces! Be careful that your fabric stack does not shift between cuts—you may even want to use a rotating cutting mat.
3. Shuffle and Sew
With your pumpkin pieces cut and still stacked together, it’s time to do a little shuffling! Move the bottom stem fabric to the top of the stack, and move the top pumpkin fabric to the bottom of the stack. This quick two-step shuffle ensures that each of your pumpkin blocks has a dark, medium, and light fabric for the stem, background, and pumpkin pieces.
After following the instructions for piecing, your pieced block will have plenty of extra fabric for trimming. Like Lori suggests in her YouTube Tutorial for the Crazy Paper, we didn’t use pins when piecing, and our blocks came together in a flash!
4. Trim Down and Layer Up
Start this step by trimming your pumpkin block down to 7.5″ square. With how much we’re trimming down, you can get creative about what you want your final pumpkin to look like! For ours, we made the blocks for the trivets have longer stems with cute, squat bodies, and for the third block, we made the pumpkin’s body front and center.
Next, set aside one of the pumpkin blocks to use in your Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner and complete the following steps with the remaining two blocks.
Cut two backing pieces and two batting squares down to 7.5″ squares. You should now have two pumpkin blocks, two pieces of batting, and two backing squares, all cut to 7.5″ squares.
Starting with the batting on the bottom, layer the block face up, and the backing face down, making an “inside out” quilt sandwich.
5. Sew and Flip
To make these trivets a super quick project, we’re skipping the binding! Starting on the bottom left of your “inside out” quilt sandwich, sew it together with a 1/4″ seam, leaving a gap at the bottom to flip it right side out.
Before flipping, trim the corners for a less bulky finish, and use your Clover Point 2 Point Turner to get the corners nice and sharp.
6. Press, Top Stitch, and Style
Take your trivet to the ironing board and give it a good press. Remember to iron from both sides—your trivet is heat-proof now! Next, fold in the opening where you turned your block, press, and pin or clip it in place. Starting in the bottom right corner of your trivet, top stitch 1/8 inch from the edge around the whole piece, being sure to secure the bottom opening with this line of topstitching.
Now, you get to display your new trivets! Where do you keep your trivets when you’re not using them? We think these are cute enough to have out on the table or counter all season long!
Come Back Next Week
We can’t wait to hear how you like Part 1 of this series, and we look forward to seeing you back here on Saturday when we make the matching Crazy Cute Pumpkin Table Runner. Don’t forget to tag us in your posts so we can see what you’ve made! We might even share your work on our stories!
Stay connected to Fat Quarter Shop!
