Mom's Place Mats

I was being a bit less than truthful in my recent posts about place mats. You see, my original intent was to make a set to give to my mother who recently celebrated her birthday. We had the big October birthday bash yesterday at Max and Erma's over at the Roberts Center near Wilmington. Mom now has her place mats, and I can come clean. (These little fibs - my conscience always gets the best of me!)

 Mom likes to garden.  She also likes pretty dishes. She also likes interesting foods. So the panel that combined all of these things seemed perfect for her. As I've done with all of these sets, I rummaged through my fat quarters to come up with suitable accent fabrics for the edges. I especially liked this combination.

 Here's a better shot of the center panel. I wish I'd taken a picture of the other motif. These place mat centers were all cut from one fat quarter panel; two look like this and the other two have a slightly different design. All very pretty.

Here are the set of 4, freshly pressed and waiting on gift-wrapping. And you can see in the background, I have the next set prepped for finishing.

This is my mom, Jeannie, with her new place mats. Photo bombing next to her is my youngest sibling, Carol. And in the background is Ann, my sister-in-law. We had a fantastic time at the birthday bash. Between Ann's family and ours, there are about 10 fall/October birthdays, so this was the reason for the bash at Max and Erma's - no one's house is big enough for all this crowd!!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Finished Place Mats

Quilting these place mats is taking longer than I had expected. My intent was to do all 16 yesterday, but I actually only managed to get 4 done. Now, perhaps it's just a matter of my not being focused rather than my being slow. I did have company coming to visit the sewing room, so instead of sewing, I felt compelled to finish the last of the cleaning that I'd been meaning to do. Dividing my attention between place mats and cleaning resulted in less productivity on said place mats.

That's a long explanation, and frankly, you probably don't care. So let's see those place mats.

I used the walking foot on my machine to sew the top to the back and batting. Left space open for turning. Pressed as neatly as possible, then stitched close to the edge all the way around.

 Then I quilted in the ditch of the few seams vertically and horizontally. That was all. Press again, and finished. I like how this set of 4 turned out. I'm hoping I have an equally good result with the remaining 3 sets.

We are off to my father-in-law's house for a day or so. Gotta' go fix up a hand-stitching project to take along.
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Making Place Mats

At Ohio One Stop last Friday, I was inspired by a project I saw. I didn't study it closely, or anything, but for whatever reason I found myself thinking about it as I began this week.

Place mats.

Wasn't on my radar - at all - but I have had 4 fat quarters of some really pretty panels for a very long time, and place mats are the perfect use for them.

Here's my interpretation of what they'll look like. First, take a look at the selvage - Hampon (?) Garden by The Alexander Henry Collection. What you can't see is the date - 1994. Good grief. Yes, I have had these panels that long. And, my, haven't selvages changed in the last 20 years?

This is a more complete look at this particular panel.

I pulled several fabrics from the fat quarter drawers (freshly organized in the recent sewing room cleaning). Auditions.

I cut the fat quarter panels in fourths, and built up the sides and top and bottom as shown in this photo.

Instead of going ahead with finishing this set of 4, I went on with the other three panels. At this point, all 16 place mats are at this stage. My job today is to finish them off. I will be sure to bring you pics.

Why am I doing so many place mats? I agreed to set up a vending table at a Christmas Bazaar next month in Greenfield. I'm getting some things ready for shoppers!

Happy Quilting, Friends!