Tag Archives: linen placemats

New Year, New Placemats

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First project to share for this year! Continuing on with my supposed clean-up in the sewing room, I found my bag of linen scraps. These are scraps left over from making French Press cozies which I sell in my shop. I cannot bear to throw these scraps away so I have been stashing them in a zip lok bag and stuffing them under the sewing table.

The first mat

Last February, I made one place mat – fully intending to make several more for the table. That didn’t happen because – you know…. I got distracted. But I have used it here and there in the house and love it.

And now there are three.

I made two more placemats but this time, I didn’t quilt them as much. I decided to go with a minimalist approach which I think looks a lot better. The fabrics are so pretty and have a lot of texture – they just don’t warrant heavy quilting.

What do you think? They really need coordinating cloth napkins. I have some off-white cloth napkins but they are getting really grungy. It is definitely time to replace them. I still have more of these linen scraps so hopefully I will get a few more coordinating placemats made. For now though, at least I have three, enough for Ray, Julia and me!

In my last post I mentioned I was going to tackle taking down the Christmas decorations. Well Julia and I did a lot of it and then got bored of doing housework. So we only got about 1/2 way there. Maybe today I will get around to the rest of it. I am also working on a cute baby quilt for my niece who is due to have her first baby in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I will have that finish to share with you soon! Finally, last night I attended a Zoom meeting of our local quilt guild. These have been happening for a while now and this is the first time I joined in. While it wasn’t the same as the in person meetings (obviously), it was really nice to see so many of the people I haven’t seen in such a long while. The coordinators of the meeting really try to keep it warm and interactive. The ‘show and tell’ portion of the meeting was actually kind of a bonus since we could see the detail in the guild member’s work up close (on our screen) rather than from the front of a large room. So that was great. If you haven’t tried joining in on something like this, give it a go. We are all home so much of the time and this provides a much needed bit of community. Take care all of you!

Linking to Stitch, Sew & Show over at Life in the Scrapatch (this is a new link up that just started this week. Go take a look.) Also at Finished or Not Friday and a few other link parties – they are listed at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Kitties and Linen

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I have a couple of small projects to share today. Both happen to involve kitty fabric which is totally coincidental. Which one do you want to see first? Oh, the linen project? Ok – sure.

I have been selling a line of cotton linen blends made by Andover for as long as I have had my fabric shop (which is just over three years now – can you believe it??) I love these fabrics and try to always keep a few choices in the shop. I have also used them to make a lot of custom Chemex covers and French Press cozies to sell in my shop. This leaves me with quite the collection of oddly shaped scraps. Obviously, I cannot throw them away. (I know you understand).

So I have been cutting them into squares to make it easier to play with them. I did a simple patchwork and quilted it up. I love the size of it and plan to make one or two more so I can use them as placemats on the table.

I quilted each of the fabrics with a different motif. Hard to see, but the kitty fabric has tiny pebbling. The black on black quilting was not fun. It is so hard to see as you are going! For the grid fabric, I did little squares that spiral this way and that. The solid fabric has loops. For the dogs I did a micro stipple. With the abstract shapes, I just outlined shapes which was easy and fun.

So pretty with some camellias from the garden.

Want to see another kitty project? This one is totally different. My grand daughter has her 3rd birthday coming up on March 7th. I was wrapping her gifts so I could get them in the mail when I realized I had not made anything for her. Kind of silly, why do I have to ‘make’ something for her. She is equally impressed with a store bought or hand made gift. But for her first birthday, I made her a doll quilt and her second birthday I made a dolly bed.

What was I to do?? I went downstairs and looked through my patterns and fabric. Wanting a quick project (since I had to mail it the next day) I chose to make her a little apron. They have two kitties at their house whom she dearly loves (though I am not at all sure her intense affection is reciprocal). I chose a sweet fabric designed by Dana Willard – you’ll find it in my shop if you click here.

Such happy felines.

Because of the length, I had to cut 3/4 yard of fabric but it was just one piece and the ties. There was plenty of fabric left over to cut another length and line the apron. This actually made it a much quicker project. Rather than hemming under the edges of the perimeter of the apron, I just sewed the two panels right sides together (after basting the neck tie and waist ties in place). The additional layer of fabric gives the apron a much nicer weight. (Which is clearly the concern of any three year old. I didn’t want her to complain to her Gram-gram that ‘this apron is just too flimsy and light weight”. Haha)

I lined the pockets with a pop of red which makes me happy and most likely matters not one bit to my sweet little girl. Again, lining the pockets seems quicker than turning under the edges and stitching them on. This way, once they are turned right side out and pressed, those edges stay right where they should be as they are stitched.

I do think she will enjoy the D-rings though. For some reason, I suspect she might want to see if she can loop the next strap through on her own. Most three year olds have this idea they can do everything on their own and she is no different.

It was a fun and really quick make – hoping she will enjoy wearing it. Her mama and daddy cook a lot and she is their helper. Now she can sport this little apron in the kitchen.

I even labeled it – The hearts look cute but I must have put too much pressure on the fabric because the bottoms of the hearts are too open. Sigh.

These projects were definitely a couple of squirrels that happened by so I’ll be sharing over at Sandra’s monthly DrEAMi link up! Also linking to From Bolt to Beauty.

Who is celebrating Leap Year today? Me, I am!! If you’d like to join me, head over to the shop because all yardage is 15% off. Clearance and remnants are 50% off. Crazy right? Great deals on lots of awesome fabric. Happy shopping!!