Placemats from Stash - Guidelines and Tutorial

Placemats are great to make for gifts - or to keep! 

You can make one and give it to someone who lives alone or donate to your local Meals on Wheels. 

Or you can make them in sets.

I decided to make a set of placemats, but not make them all match! 

This is easy and fun to do with your stash.

 I'll share a couple of guidelines so you can see the possibilities in your own stash!

GUIDELINES FOR MAKING STASH PLACEMATS:

1. Make them all the SAME SIZE. I make mine no bigger than a fat quarter of fabric. These placemats finish at 12 inches high by 19 inches wide.

2. Use the SAME BACKING fabric. Mine all have this floral fabric so I can flip them over for Easter! You could also use co-ordinating fat quarters from a line of fabric. The fabrics will match, but not be all the same.

3. Pick a COMMON THEME. I included the mitten applique motif in my PLACEMATS FROM STASH TUTORIAL NOTES pdf. You can make your mittens all the same colour, from the same fabric line, or not! 

The bottom placemat in this photo was really quick and easy - 2 sets of mittens, 2 fat quarters, some batting and DONE!

A common theme could also be common fabric. I used different leftover pieces of the same print to make these two placemats. They go together but don't match! {The tree motif is from my Primitive Joy pattern}

4. USE WHAT YOU HAVE! The cute placemat with the mittens dancing down the middle of two sets of stripes is made with leftovers from another project. I just cut the strip in two and added another piece of leftover fabric. You might need to use a little math here, but don't worry it's easy math. My strips are 3 1/2 inches wide and the middle fabric is 5 inches wide {including seam allowances}

5. HAVE FUN! Use up the novelty prints that you've been collecting. Find the bits and orphan blocks that have been waiting to play. 

6. DOWNLOAD my PLACEMATS FROM STASH TUTORIAL NOTES. The measurements for the placemat directly above, with the print in the middle and pairs of mittens down the sides, are given. I might make more quick notes for the others.

I used the envelope method to put my placemats together - a quick method that involves no binding. There's a quick diagram included on the pdf.  You can use binding if you want to - another opportunity to make your placemats MATCH by using the same binding.

  

Enjoy making from your stash this holiday season!

With JOY,

Sarah Vee

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Summertime Fusing Fun

Are you ready for some fusing fun? 

My Inspiration

During the last month of school my son kept coming home with gardens he had drawn. This one is full of strawberries with a big blueberry in the middle! 

Does it look like a quilt to you?!?! 

It did to me!

Plus I liked how the strawberries just looked like triangles. Simple lines to create a sweet treat.

It got me thinking that fusing strips of fabric then just making diagonal cut lines could create a whole row of strawberries. Really quick and easy!

My favourite fusible for this technique would be Mistyfuse because there is no paper backing to worry about coming off before I'm ready to use the fabric. 

Plus, with making triangle shaped fruit, I don't really need templates!

You can use whatever fusible you have on hand. 

Whatever fabrics you have on hand!

I ended up creating a few different fruits and a carrot. Simple shapes to cut freehand.

Here's what I did:

1.Drew my idea on a piece of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. 

2.Made some fused fabric:

1 strip of orange

1 rectangle of pink {with bonus little print on it to look like seeds}

1 wide strip of bright green

1 thin strip of dark green {approx. 2.5 inches}

2 strips of red {probably close to 2.5 inches wide. I only used part of one for these strawberries}

3.Cut out my shapes from fused fabrics.

One cutting tip - I made the strawberry 'tops' by cutting freehand 'x's out of the fabric. 

4.Fused shapes on background. {Background fabric started out 12.5 x 15 inches}

5.Stitched around raw edges with different colour thread. Most I did blanket stitch by hand, but the carrot top I used my machine. I did stem stitch around the strawberries.

Then I made a placemat!

My son saw me making the fruit and immediately thought they were for him!

With his birthday coming next week, I put on my birthday gift thinking cap and made my appliqued piece into a placemat.

To make the placemat you need in addition to your appliqued piece

pocket panel 12.5 x 4.5 inches

pocket {I use the same fabric} 6 x 4.5 inches

backing fabric 13 x 20 inches

batting 13 x 20 inches

binding {I used bias binding tape from granny's stash}

1.Trim appliqued piece to 12 x 14.5 inches

2.On the top edge of pocket you will want a finished edge: simply fold under 1/4 inch seam, then fold under another 1/4 inch seam. Sew to create a hem.

3.Line up pocket with RIGHT SIDE UP on bottom half of pocket panel.

4.Put appliqued piece RIGHT SIDE DOWN on pocket panel, lining up the edges you are going to sew down. You *could* put your pocket on the other side of the appliqued piece.

5.Sew to join edge. Press seam open.

6.Create your placemat sandwich with backing fabric RIGHT SIDE DOWN

batting, then appliqued panel RIGHT SIDE UP.

7.Pin baste and quilt placemat remembering NOT to sew the pocket closed! I simply stitched in the ditch where the pocket panel and appliqued piece joined. Then around each of the fruits and veggies with blue thread to match the background.

8.Trim placemat to 12 x 18 inches.

9.Attach binding.

Enjoy!

Make one Just Like Mine!

 

 

Open publication - Free publishing - More fruit motifs

 

Of course, I went one step further and made templates for you. 

Just in case you wanted your fruit to look like mine!
You can use any fusible product to copy the templates.
If you are using Mistyfuse, copy the templates onto one of your pieces of parchment paper. When you fuse, make sure the pencil side is touching the Mistyfuse.
You can leave the parchment paper on and cut out your shapes - or remove the paper from lighter fabrics and cut on the transferred pencil lines.

Long post! Hope you enjoy it!

Sarah Vee

                             

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Free Charm Placemat Pattern

Here it is!
A "thank you!" pattern to mark reaching 300 posts on my blog.

I was asked if my first placemat pattern was 'charm friendly', and in truth, it isn't really. {But it's still a fun pattern to try!:)}
I took on the challenge and designed this placemat.
As it's name suggests, you need 9 charms (5 inch squares) to make one placemat.
Plus some fabric for the borders. This placemat has a pocket too. Guess I like pockets!
My sample above was made using some of the charms I received from Sandi - last Christmas? and the green is from a fat quarter she sent me too.

You don't have to make Christmas placemats!

But, you could make some for holiday gift giving!

I made a set of 4 for fall using my "October" charm pack.
If you look closely at the bottom right,
you can see I was able to use 2 matching charms to create my pocket block.
Pretty fun, eh!

You can find the free 9's a Charm pattern by clicking here.
{Please enjoy for personal use or gift giving only}

9's a Charm Placemat Pattern


With Joy,
Sarah V.

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