I know, how could I possibly bring up Christmas when it’s only the beginning of July? In fact, I can’t believe that it is July already. Where have the months gone?
I am still in the middle of organising my new studio space. It hasn’t been as simple as I’d hoped to find furniture and layouts that allow me to use the space well regardless of whether I am having a fairly mobile day or one where I spend most of the time in my wheelchair. If I find a good compromise I will do a post to share the solutions I came up with as it may be helpful to others.
So what does this have to do with Christmas? Well, in the move and reorganisation process I found the fabric that my mum had picked out to be turned into festive placemats. In true procrastination style I decided that I had to take some time out and make them up there and then!
First I cut the backing and batting to around 12″x15″ and used 505 spray to hold them together. Rather than piece the top layer, I placed the 2 1/2″ strips of fabric diagonally and used the quilt as you go (QAYG) method to secure each one in turn.
The advantage of using the QAYG method is that as soon as your last strip is sewn down you can trim and bind the edges to finish. As these placemats will be saved for the festive period, I wanted to add the further embellishment of free-motion quilting stars/snowflake designs. Using Gütermann’s grey variegated thread (colour 4028) helped the quilting to blend across the placemats.
The finished placemats measure approximately 12″x15″ and both fabrics were bought from my fabulous local quilt shop Chalk Hill Blue. I am still very new to free-motion quilting but they do say that practice makes perfect so in a few years I will probably be able to do a much neater job but they are certainly functional for the meantime.
