At the embroidery group, we all brought in a 20 minute Christmas gift idea.  Mine was for these hot pads. 

Made from six 8" squares.  Fold four of the squares either on the diagonal or vertical.
Then lay one whole squares right side down, insulbrite, whole square right side up and then layer the four folded squares overlapping them.
Sew around the square with 1/4" seam.  Then zig zag. Trim corners and turn the folded sides out.  Or if you have  a serger you could serge around and skip the seam and zig zag.  If you want a loop, fold a piece of ribbon in half and insert in corner between second whole square and folded squares before sewing.