Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day! I'm celebrating 3.14 with some delicious Lattice Fruit Pie Trivets and a free tutorial to make your own!

fruit fabric plus strips and ric rac make a pie

Don't these look delicious? I can't decide which is my favorite: blueberry or the mixed fruit of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Either makes for some mouth-watering trivets to pretty up the table!

Ready to make some? Then grab the following ingredients and let's make a pie!

Lattice Fruit Pie Trivet Ingredients

Makes 2 pie trivets

1/4 yard fruit themed cotton prints
1/4 yard insul-fleece (the one with the metal sandwiched between fleece)
1/4 yard all cotton batting
1/4 yard backing (I used beige, a 'crust' color)
1 1/2 yard (or 1 pkg) medium or .5 inch beige ric rac
1 1/2 yard (or 1 pkg) 5/8" wide beige double fold bias tape
1 new, sharp, size 14 needle

Step 1 - Cut circles

Use a circle cutting tool or an 8" plate or bowl as a template to cut the following number of circles:

2 (two) from beige backing, and insul-fleece

4 (four) from cotton batting

1 (one) from each of the fruit prints, for a total of 2 (two)

cutting circles with a half circle template

Step 2 - Layer the pie

Stack the cut circles in the following order to make two pies:

beige backing, cotton, insul-fleece, cotton, fruit print

BTW, I placed the exposed metal of the insul-fleece up to (hopefully) better reflect the heat back to the dish and not onto my table

Step 3 - Baste

To keep layers from shifting, use a long stitch length to baste circles together, with a line parallel on two sides, as shown next to white lines. Baste a group of 2 circles and a group of 3 circles,

then baste all 5 together. Finish the basting by stitching close to the circle edge.

Remove straight line basting stitches before proceeding to Step 4.

Step 4 - Add lattice

Cut bias tape lattice strips for the center and each side, 6 (six) pieces total. Stitch in place using a zig zag stitch and thread to match the 'crust'. Trim lattice ends even with circle edge when done.

Easy lattice:

Add bias tape lattice strips in the center and on each side. Add the remaining three lattice strips perpendicular to the first set.

applying bias tape to make a lattice pie trivet

Woven lattice

If weaving the lattice strips, cut all six bias strip pieces, weaving them over and under each other. Start stitching with the 'under' center piece, keeping pieces that go on top folded back out of the way. Continue stitching any 'under' strips to achieve the woven effect.

Step 5 - Apply bias binding

Pin bias binding to the edge, overlapping and folding back final end for a nice finish. If necessary, use a bit of glue to hold binding in place.

Stitch binding with trivet backside up (fruit print face down) for even zig zag stitches along binding edge. Do not worry about catching the binding on the front of the trivet - it gets covered in the next step.

Step 6 - Apply ric rac to front

Using a longer straight stitch, around 3.5-4, stitch ric rac to the front, covering the inside binding edge and ric rac extending slightly over trivet edge. Fold back the meeting ends for a clean finish.