Cozy for Christmas

Now that these have been delivered I can share. I like to make gifts for my crafty friends so I'm always on the look out for new ideas of things to share.  My BQF started making her own tortillas from scratch so obviously she needs a pretty tortilla warmer!

This summer I found this fabulous Michael Miller Sugar Skulls fabric at Marden's which seemed perfect and paired it with some Cedar Essex.  I don't usually prewash my fabrics but since I was planning to use these around food I did.  When making things to be used in the microwave it's important to use all 100% cotton products.  There are microwave specific battings but I just used up some leftover Quilters Dream Cotton.  

There are a lot of options out there but I loosely followed this tutorial from the Bernina We All Sew site.  Rather than quilting each circle individually, I pre-quilted a section big enough to make 3 warmers (6 circles).

I found working with double fold bias binding a bit fiddly and had a hard time keeping my sewing lines on both sides of the binding, especially on the bottom where I'm binding two layers together.  You definitely want to use bias binding here since you're going around curves.  I think if I do this again I'll make my binding a bit wider or just use my usual quilt method.  It's not something I do often so maybe I just need more practice though after the 3rd one I felt like I'd practiced enough.  

Pattern:  Fabric Tortilla Warmer by Ashley Johnston for Bernina at We All Sew. 
Fabrics: Sugar Skulls by Michael Miller, Essex linen in Cedar.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Cotton.
Thread: 50 wt. Aurifil in Rusty Orange (2240) and Pale Pink (2410).