Making Placemats from Stash

I decided to make some placemats to match my Happiness Key quilt. I have some of the border fabrics left. I even allowed myself to fussy cut a big rose from the fabric for each placemat.

I'm using my Striped Delight pattern and just following the measurements to cut pieces from yardage and fat quarters. I'm not making the shoofly block and using an option I describe in the pattern (it means I won't have a pocket either, but I can live with that!) I didn't end up having enough of the blue with white polka dot fabric so I've improvised and am using some of the focus fabric for my top and bottom stripes.

This weekend I decided to make bold delight placemats to go on the back - notice I didn't start with the placemats I want NOW! LOL

I also made these from my stash yardage. The focus print is some fabric my sister gifted me several years ago!

I'm making them all match in my own fashion - the focus fabric is staying the same. I like how different these two placemats look - I chose fabrics that match the colours in the vegetables.

I really like this green print. It is a directional print but the pattern is so spaced out that it's not obvious to the eye when the pieces aren't going in the same direction. The batik on the outside I tried to keep the leaves pointing up.

I like this one too. It shows you can use only two fabrics to create a placemat. I was lucky enough that my scraps of vegetable basket fabrics were cut going in both directions so I could cut pieces for all the parts to go in the right direction. If you look closely (maybe you can already see it) the middle block on this one is pieced together. I was just happy I had enough to make all the centres! And, I still have some smaller bits of the vegetable fabric left.

I did end up making 5 placemats even though I only intended to make four. I couldn't resist trying out the green in the centre! I have secretly decided that this shade of green (kind of warm lime green) is my new accent colour in the kitchen and dining room. I'm not sure if my husband will notice or not! This one I will use as the centre runner. It seems like less stuff gets spilled at the table if it's on a soft surface rather than the wood.

I have only cut out enough fabric to make 4 of the striped delight. I will probably end up using some of the leftover rose fabric to make a runner for this set as well. I like to make reversible placemats - they take up less room in my linen drawer! That and I find it more fun to make two things at once!

You can purchase your own copy of my Double Delight pattern - 

which includes both the

 Striped Delight and the Bold Delight

 in my online shop.

Thanks for your support xo

With Joy,


Sarah V

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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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Making from Stash in March

My design wall has been full for a week. Time to blog about it and take it all down!

 

I gave in to the *S* blocks! They are now my leaders and enders project. So far I've only been sewing together leftover hsts. I can't wait to start some new projects and play with some new scraps!

 

This is the only BOM that I started this year - and I'm almost done! It's a mini quilt from Temecula Quilts and there's only one more block. I should be finished this one pretty soon. No leftover hsts here though - the squares are 1 7/8 inches then cut in half. That's getting way too tiny for me to reuse!

I also took some time recently to play with my Eat with Joy placemat pattern. All of the pieces of the blocks are made out of 5 inch charms. I used some long loved fabric from my stash. These were the colors and types of fabrics I bought when I first started quilting. It could have something to do with the infamous blue and yellow star quilt made by Alex Anderson.

Then I played with some Christmas charms and made another placemat. This time even the borders are made from charm squares. I think this design would work better with a charm pack where all the prints coordinate. Or using multiple charms of a couple of fabrics. i do like how the Santa prints sit in the design.


Now my wall is empty again as I start to work on finishing some small projects.


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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