Holiday Project

I needed a little stitchin’ time so I rooted through my stash and found this super cute place mat fabric. “Christmas Cheer” by Patric Lose is what it said on the selvedge. I’m not sure how long this was waiting to be finished but it seemed the perfect holiday project for 2019.

I wrote about making placemats on the longarm frame a couple of years ago. If you missed it you can read it here. I used the same method of loading the batting as if it were a backing. This is my favorite way to make place mats because it eliminates the need for sewing on binding to finish the edges. So glad I remembered to use fusible batting. It makes the place mats look nice and crisp and keeps the backing from getting all bunchy and wrinkled when they are washed.

Free-motion quilting with white Magnifico thread by Superior was a lot of fun. For the background quilting I did some ruler work and some cropping with Pro-Stitcher. Each one was different.

Next stitch the backing fabric right side down on top of what you have already quilted. To do this, I opened the circle design from the Pro-Stitcher library, resized, and changed the start point so there would be an opening to turn the place mats right side out.

I positioned the design to fit over Santa before I placed the fabric right side down and with a few pins to hold the fabric in place, I stitched the modified circle.

As you can see, it is possible to see the place mat through the backing fabric. If you are not a Pro-Stitcher quilter, you could easily accomplish this with an arc ruler.

Once they were all stitched I removed them from the frame and trimmed leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Finishing up

After clipping the curved edges, I turned them right side out and pressed. Turn opening under and press, then hand stitch closed.

All ready for some fun meals with the grandies!

There’s nothing like a fun holiday project to get you in the festive spirit. What are you finishing for the holidays?

by Mary Beth Krapil