Cooking Party Hot Pads

I made some hot pads for a cooking party I had this past Tuesday.  I got the idea from one of my Ravelry friends.  Her's looked so good.  I am not so sure about mine.  I like them but they are not as pretty as her's. She got the idea from a coaster pattern and then made it larger for hot pads.

Here is the pattern:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/summertime-cocktail-coasters

I made backing for them before I made the tops:

I started with an open loop and then pulled the end to tighten once I had all the single crochets.  This is actually something I learned recently.  In the past I would have made a chain 3 or whatever, joined with a slip stitch and then started the round.  This method (the sliding loop) is neater and tighter.  I found this in the book Beyond the Square, Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman.