Canning: Crazy Quilt Jar Lids

Canning and jamming season is upon us!

If you love making jam and other delicious gifts from your kitchen, you may also be interested in learning to make these crazy quilt jar lids. They're easy to put together, and make a nice finishing touch for any jars of goodies you plan to give away.

The first step is to start with a small fabric scrap, sew another small scrap to it, and keep adding until your piece of fabric is large enough to cover the jar lid. I'm new to crazy quilting, but the main "trick" I've found is that you need to sew straight edge to straight edge. So once I've sewn two mismatched scraps together, I decide which edge I want to add onto next, and trim that edge so it's in a straight line before adding the next fabric piece. When you're done sewing, iron your finished piece.

Choose the jars you plan to use.

Using your jar lid as a pattern, cut out a circle of thin cardboard for each lid. Note I have two different sizes here, one regular mason lid size and two wide-mouth.

Using any batting scraps you may have, cut batting into same size as your jar lids.

Glue batting circles onto cardboard circles. I used a hot glue gun which worked well, but make sure not to glob on the glue around the edges. Your finished lid needs to fit snugly into the jar ring when you're done, and bunches of glue will make the lid too bulky to properly screw onto the jar.

You may notice I start with three jar lids and in my end pictures I wind up with only two finished products. Glue globs. Ugh.

I say it again: use hot glue sparingly.

Put your lid over your fabric scrap, minding the placement so it catches your favorite part of the crazy quilt design. Draw right on the fabric; using ink pen is fine as you will cut on this line, and eventually it will be hidden under the jar ring anyway.

Cut out your fabric circles. Put glue around the edges and stick to the top of the batting.

Again, I used hot glue here and wish I had used a little less. Maybe white glue is worth a try next time.

Now slip those babies into jar rings and they're ready to go! If you're using jams or other jars of produce you've canned, there will already be a lid on the jar, of course, so you won't be needing these flat lids shown here. But if you're using the lids on jars that have not been canned (like the empty jars here) you will place the flat lid on the jar, then screw your cute little jar lid onto the top.
I hope you give these a try. Despite the length of the instructions, they really are simple to make. Sew, cut, glue. Let me know if you have questions, or suggestions, or pictures of your finished jar lids that we can all come and coo over.

Happy canning season!

Note: For more tips and ideas, check out Works-for-me-Wednesday at We are THAT Family.