Scrappy Placemats post 1 of 2

Scraps for placemats

Goal number 10 on my 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long 2017 (FAL) was to stitch these leftover scraps from stitching J's Christmas stocking a number of years ago. My thought was that these would be a great gift for the grands. I could gift the placemats at the beginning of December as preparation for the big day. I remember as a kid, it seemed to me like a whole year passed after Thanksgiving before it was Christmas! It helped the time pass when there was an activity that all the family did together. . .like picking out and decorating the Christmas tree.

Batting and backing

I thought that I had enough scraps to make two placemats. My plan was to make one using the strips and then to make a second placemat from the extra strata I had stitched with 2 1/2 inch strips.

Some of the available scraps

Miss J, the youngest grand, helped me stitch the batting pieces leftover from the QAYG (Quilt As You Go) project so that I had plenty of batting.  I know that most people would just toss such tiny scraps; but, it gave J something fun to do and netted us both enough batting for a number of small projects. The size of the pieced batting was 39" x 59 inches.  I'm glad to have it!

K's design and fabric addition.

I had a piece of leftover fabric that would work as backing for two placemats. My plan was to use all of the 30 degree cut strips in some sort of arrangement. Then, Miss K, the oldest grand, took a look at the design and changed it for the better.

In a few minutes, she removed some strips and oriented other strips in a different direction. Then, she spied a fat quarter that was laying on the cutting table and said that I should use it.

She was RIGHT! The only downside to the design was that I still had leftover strips. Having leftover strips meant that there would be more placemats!

Embroidered names for the placemats

I especially chuckled over her comment of where her name should go and that her name should be in "gold" like the stars on the black fabric. Oh, and I should use plain black fabric on that part! Did I mention she is five years old? That gal knows what she likes!

K's placemat ready for quilting

Embroidering her name on the placemat would give me practice with my machine. It would also give me a chance to play with different fonts. What a great thought!

One for my son-in-law

It took some time to embroider the names. I used different fonts and different colors of thread. I am pleased with how each looks!

One for the oldest daughter

One for the youngest grand

At this point, I wasn't sure if there were enough scraps for four placemats; but, I planned to try to stitch that many!

I selected scraps for K's placemat and saved similar scraps for J's placemat. I can relate to experiences where I didn't receive similar attention from a grandparent. It was hard growing up knowing I was "liked" less than another grandchild. I'm mindful of what that experience felt like to me. I am determined that each one of my children and grandchildren will always feel like they are the "favorite." Honestly, I don't have a "favorite."

Back to the placemats, K was right about how much the gold star fabric added to the placemat design. She was also right about adding a name to each placemat.

Whew! I had enough scraps to make four placemats. My stash had scraps for the back of the Momma and the Daddy placemats although it was two different fabrics!

The scraps left after making four placemats

That piece of plaid on the Momma placemat is what is on the back of Daddy's placemat. I included it on the Momma placemat because that Momma always has Daddy's back.

I've inserted a photo of the scraps that I had left which wasn't much! Yes, I used Bonnie Hunter's method to cut those four pieces at that bottom of the photo into useable increments. The snippets left at the top. . .yes, I threw them away!

A sample of the quilting  

Close up of the quilting

Now it was on to the quilting! I began ditch stitching each placemat with cotton thread.

I decided that the center piece of the grands placemats was a great spot to slip in a motif using one of the Westalee rulers. I'm glad that I refreshed my memory of how to use the lines on the ruler because I spent some time getting reacquainted! Thank goodness for YouTube as there was a short video available that I viewed and then realized I had been using the wrong line on the ruler to orient the design.

Broken ruler foot

I was cruising along and then, my ruler foot broke! It was about 6:30 on a Saturday evening and I knew that my Bernina dealer was at Market in Houton TX. I sent her a text and this photo.

She replied in about 10 minutes and said she could take care of it when she was back in town on Wednesday. (That is the day that I publish this post!) She also texted some fine comments to me. . . she called my scrappy placemats beautiful and called me an artist! How is that for support from the local quilt shop that is also the local Bernina dealer? Thanks again Thea and thanks Quilting Delights! 

I plan to complete the free motion stitching on the second two placemats and be ready for the ruler work. I can complete the other two placemats as they are ready for the binding.

Stay tuned as I continue my progress in the second post of Scrappy Placemats!!!

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