Posted by dravon in Project Review | Comments Off on Halloween is coming! Time to break out those quilted placemats…
Halloween is coming! Time to break out those quilted placemats…
I must admit, I sometimes entrap myself with my own way of thinking. In this case, I was stuck in the mode that I HAD to make my next post be the follow-up for the twin needle work posts. Namely, the utilitarian uses of the twin needle or no post at all. Wow. The name says it all. I was so uninspired by this that I just kept putting it off … and off … and off .. and … oh look! It’s been HOW many months since my last post?!?
Still stuck in that mindset, I’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff like adding featured images to posts or making sure the picture links work at all (if you find a broken one, please help me out with a comment so I can track them down faster). It’s now approaching Halloween here in the US, and I am one of those folks who LOVE this holiday. ADORE IT! How much fun is this crazy time of year, eh? Besides, I’m in California, it’s finally cool enough to go outside again. Since I originally hailed from Massachusetts, let me tell you that there is a WORLD of difference between the two Halloween experiences.
But I digress. Pretty pictures! That is what inspired this post and finally jarred me out of my own narrow think. This is my blog, and I love to be inspired. I love to be excited about things and I most especially love to share that excitement and possibility with others. So I posted a picture onto my Facebook page of a table runner I made for a class several years ago which came from a post here. Then I ran into the set of pictures I took as I made placemats to match! No post for those… Inspiration struck.
The class at The Quilt Emporium in Woodland Hills, CA gave me the dimensions to cut to make the table runner, but I had all this material left over. I wanted to make some placemats. What to do… Here is the result of experiment #1!
Pretty! For the back, I used something fun but basic.
I loved how these turned out but the only thing I was not thrilled by was my choice of quilting. I used machine decorative stitching down the center of each braid. When I did another variation of the French Braid theme for the Thanksgiving placemats, I did stitching-in-the-ditch for them and boy was that gorgeous! My new set will feature this form of quilting. While the decorative stitches were fun, they did not enhance the design but rather detracted from it. I learned from this project that, for me, the basis of any good quilting motif is that it must work to enhance the overall design or composition of the rest of the piece. A good learning lesson there!
I created the pattern for this, made my placemats and promptly threw away my pattern. I’m finally realizing just much I do this. *headdesk* I’m now recreating the placemat pattern and making a new set of placemats in order to create the instructions. The variation pattern will also be done at the same time as well. They’ll be available as a PDF download. Interested? Just add your name to the newsletter page to be notified when both of the patterns are live.
Anyhoo, another piece I was thrilled with was the mitered corners on the back side of these mini quilts. They came out so perfect this time, and considering the hideous mess that was my first attempt I’d say I learned it pretty well. Still mess up here sometimes, but not this time!
You can see the reasonably small black stitches which I used to close the mitered corner and seal it up. I also attached this binding by hand on the backside, back when I was still doing that. I have a tendancy toward carpal tunnel problems and now really work to do as much as possible on my machine so that I can keep creating!
And so those are the pretty pictures that I found while trolling through my extensive history of stuff made. Most of what was learned in this project was actually just a continuation of the lessons learned in the Table Runner project. When I made the directions for my pattern, as always, I assume you’ve never picked up a quilting pattern in your life and so they work well for classes — whether I teach the class or you want to buy the package and teach the class in your area.
If you enjoyed any of the images, were inspired in some way, or even learned something new, please click “Like” or “Share” and if you’re feeling particularly generous leave a comment. Thank you! And until next time, Happy Sewing!
– Dravon
