Holiday (or Winter) Placemats

Afew years ago, I made a set of placemats – I basically sewed a rectangle with some batting in between, turned it right side out, did a finishing seam around the edge and pressed it – pretty straight forward and a great way to start. This year, our quilting group was looking for a little Christmas project so, we latched onto the placemats (pattern is attached below). This is a little more complicated and we decided to use sparkly thread to quilt them. With sparkly thread you need to go slowly and be prepared for it to fray but, it is worth the effort.

I backed mine and did the fold over binding and then hand sewed the edges down. I may still do a fancy stitch around the outside but, I am still considering that option. It is a great way to use scraps. We adjusted the pattern and instead of sewing a really long strip and cutting it, we sewed 13-14 inch strips and then cut them down to 12 – 1/2 inches before we sewed them together.

PLACEMAT PATTERN
17 colours total for stripes.
2 different reds for hat and gnome jacket
1 black for gnome shoes
Scraps of white for beard
Scrap of flesh-tone for nose.
For 6 placemats, the backing fabric needs to be 40 or
more inches wide, and you need a 1.5 metre piece. Cut
six 16×19.75 rectangles (3 pairs of 2 per width of fabric)
40×60 inches of batting
2 dark fabrics [A, B]
3 medium dark fabrics [C, D, E]
9 light fabrics [F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N]
3 medium fabrics [O, P, Q]
Minimum amount of fabric to be purchased for strips (20 cm/ 8 inches) from bolts 41-45”
wide.
Cut 2.25-inch (fabric should be 41 to 45″ long) wide strips, 1 strip in each of these
colours: A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, O, P; 2 strips in each of these colours: E, M, N, Q.
Cut each strip into the following segment lengths
2.5″
4.25″
6″
5″
3″
5.75″
2.25″
4.75″
7.75″
3.75″
You will have 210 segments of different lengths.
All seams are scant 1/4″ (move the needle over 2 or 3 beeps)
Take a random segment length from each colour of strip including the repeated
colours(E, M, N, & Q), then join the segments in the following order:
A, F, C, G, Q, M, N, E, H, P, I, D, J, O, K, B, L, M, E, Q, N

Repeat joining random segment lengths in the same colour order in one long
continuous strip until half the segments (105) are joined together.
Repeat joining random segment lengths in the reverse colour order above in one long
continuous strip until remaining 105 segments are used.
Cut the 2 extremely long strips into 12.5 inch lengths until you have 54 (12.5×2.25)
strips.
If any strips are not 12.5 inches long, sew on the next strip and then continue cutting
12.5-inch lengths. Press seam allowances on back all in the same direction.
Arrange six sets of nine 12.5-inch strips beside each other, attempting to have 2
appearances of colours A and B in each nine-strip set.
Sew the 12.5-inch strips to each other.
Square & trim the quilt-tops to 12×15.75 rectangles.
Cut 6 12×15.75 rectangles of batting.
Lay the quilt tops on the batting, then on the backing fabric wrong sides together and
use safety pins to secure for top-stitching.
Topstitching is done by sewing straight lines on both sides of lengthwise seams, 1/4″
away from seam on each side.

Written by Pam

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