Teapot Trivets with Tea for Two… Embroidery Designs
Thomas from Way Cool Kid and Thomas Knauer Sews is here today to share a Teapot Trivet tutorial with some special embroidery designs for you to download. Take the Mug Rug sensation a step further! You can learn more about Thomas in his introduction, and be sure to look for his first fabric line this fall from Andover.
From Thomas: I know that Mug Rugs are all the rage right now, but in our house we probably have more teapots than we do teacups. (You’ll just have to trust me on this ’cause I’m writing this while on vacation and my beloved teapots are miles and miles away.) Since the mugs are getting all the love, my dear teapots have been feeling left out. So, I thought it was time to start making them some Teapot Trivets.
A bit larger than a Mug Rug, Teapot Trivets are the perfect size for some lovely embroidery. Now I’m new to embroidery, but I whipped up these three designs using some creatures that you just may be seeing more of later this year. You can go ahead and grab the PDF of my “Tea for Two… Or More” designs right here.
Off to work! I embroidered these in advance, but a little fabric, a little floss, an afternoon with a cup of tea, and whiz-bang you’ll have one of these done. I must admit that I am enormously charmed by a simple backstitch varying between one, two, and three strands of floss. (You can find an easy backstitch how-to in the Sew,Mama,Sew! Pocket Stitch Book.)
Supplies:
- Your embroidered design. (You can print out the Tea for Two Embroidery Designs here.)
- A piece of backing a couple of inches wider and taller than your embroidered fabric.
- A piece of batting the same size as your backing.
- Enough fabric to make binding strips. (My trivets always seem to need slightly more than a bolt width… Typical me!)
- Rotary cutter, cutting mat, needle, thread, scissors, sewing machine, etc…
- Mr. Rippy (seam ripper, I always need him around)
- Sewing glasses (You may not need them, but I do.)
- Marking pen/pencil (I like the Pilot Frixion erasable pen; it disappears with the wave of an iron.)
Step One: Mark your quilting lines onto your embroidered fabric. Since these are pretty small I like to just throw down a few seemingly random lines. A little asymmetry goes a long way in my book. Once that’s done, sandwich your embroidery, batting, and backing and pin.
Step Two: Quilt it. Quick and easy. I like using thread that matches the fabric I embroidered on so the quilting doesn’t compete with the embroidery too much, but I love letting it hang out there on the back. A little hand quilting also works wonderfully with a bit of pearl cotton.
Step Three: Trim it down and give it a quick ironing to get ride of those pesky pen marks (If you used a Frixion pen– And I’m not a paid spokesman, I just like the darned thing.).
Step Four: Whip up those binding strips. Since this trivet is 10″ x 10″ I needed just over the bolt width to actually be able to pull the binding off. I like cutting my binding strips at 2.5″ for these, but a wider binding is actually quite fly.
Step Five: Attach your binding strips to the front. Not gonna walk through that here ’cause I bet you all are far better at this than I am, but I do love referring to Heather Bailey’s handy-dandy guide just to keep myself honest.
Step Six: Hand stitch your binding to the back and lickety-split you are done: a little Teapot Trivet so your teapots don’t get jealous of all the love you’ve been giving your mugs as of late. I think it may just be time for a Teapot Trivet swap.
Now don’t forget to download the Tea for Two… Or More designs, and thanks to Sew,Mama,Sew! for having me. Now, where did I put my tea?
This entry was posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Tutorials & Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.35 Responses to “Teapot Trivets with Tea for Two… Embroidery Designs”
Advertising
info@sewmamasew.com
This is so cute! Thanks so much for sharing!
Oh how lovely! Thanks for the designs.
Wow, these are just SO cute!!!!
love the simplicity of these. would make great mug rugs too.
Very cute designs!
The patterns are just lovely! I can’t wait to give them a try. Thank you!
Cute! Nice embroidery.
Dear Thomas! I love the simplicity of your designs, and the message (TEA!) is conveyed. But what do you do when tea has dripped on your precious Teapot Trivet????
These designs are just so adorable. I don’t do much embroidery (yet!!) but these just might get me started soon!!
Thank you for the patterns
These are the cutest designs ever! Thanks for sharing.
So sweet. I like the idea of teapot trivets – since there’s always a pot of tea on the tables around here.
Wow, those are absolutely adorable! The bright colors and the fun designs really make the whole thing come together. I am also a real big fan of the asymmetry, which is not the norm. I think it lends a bit of whimsicality (is that even a word?) that makes the designs more fun, especially the stacked elephants and treetop tea giraffe. Thank you for sharing.
These are so adorable!
I love these! So sweet and simple. Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing this great tutorial and designs! These would also be great on a french press cozy. Love the birds!
Oh, I hope we see lots more from him.
To sweet! Just love these. I have a collection of teapots too!
From the teapot on the trivet, it looks like your a potter also. Nice work and thanks for the design idea.
Margie
I absolutely love these. Thank you so much.
Very beautiful and simple!
This is just a darling idea, and yes, the perfect way to display embroidery! I’ll have to make a few of these.
Thank you, Thomas! The designs are charming. I downloaded them and can’t wait to stitch them. Good luck with your fabric line!
Thanks so much Thomas, they are lovely designs and congratulations on your new fabric line.
These are completely doable.
Thanks to all for the wonderful comments. I am so glad you are enjoying these. I hope to be doing a lot more embroidery in the near future.
As for spills, I think of spills as part of the life of these, just like with my quilts. They are meant to be used, and use means stains. If you want to be really careful you can pre-soak your floss and prewash your fabric and then just toss the trivets into the washer if they get stained. But to me, a wee tea stain is just a sign that afternoon tea is being shared, and that is the way life should be. If one gets too messy it is just an excuse to make another…
Works with a coffee cup, too. LOL! They are cute and I thank you for the patterns. But mine will comfort coffee….not tea……
I am such a tea junkie myself and I love these teapot trivets. I’d love a full grouping of a mug rug, teapot cover, and teapot trivet. What fun!
Holy cow — I have been putting SO much work and stress into binding. How did I never catch on to do it that way??
Woo hooo! I’ve been planning to make potholders and some little mats but have been putting it off.
What a lovely blinding flash of the obvious for me!
Thank you!
Thanks for a great idea! This could make interesting placemats, too!
Super cute, easy and fun!
I love the designs thanks for sharing
These are so fabulous! Thanks for the great tutorial.
Adorable!!!
Thank you for the lovely designs! and tutuorial – love the tea trivits
Thank you!
Those are super adorable and while I love the owl designs that popped up over the last year or two I’m super happy to see some other animals!