The blue placemats are mine no more!!

remember these?

Well, it took me the better part of a year, but I managed to finally finish these guys up and send them off to the recipients. I don't think I could have moved forward into the next year if I had this project hanging over me, and I KNOW that my friend Erica is glad that I finally finished them.

So here are some of the final photos that I took of the whole set before sending them off.

Pot holder and place mats

There is nothing like having a specific goal (read "deadline") to compel me to get s*** done.

I quilted and bound that pot holder for our PMQG / KCMQG swap...

(like those little martini glasses??)

And really, the theme of the week has been binding. I have 3 sets of place mats on which I have sewn bindings, one of which is the long-overdue commission, the other two are new additions to hopefully have a decent inventory when Saskia and I have our tables at a holiday bazaar next month. (more info to come soon...)

My thimble finger is about to get quite the workout!

Lots of Little Pebbles

So, the saga of the blue place mats continues, though it's coming together with positive results. As you all may recall, once I finally came up with a solution for the piecework, after quite a journey, the next step was to figure out how I would quilt these guys. I drew a few sketches in my notebook, and decided to try slightly wonky, echoed circles mimicking the print on the border, but at a much larger scale.

Not only did I have trouble doing freehand circles at that scale (especially working at my machine on my dining table, so I only had the throat of the machine as a working surface), but I felt that the motif felt a little too juvenile for the design of the place mats at this stage. Back to the drawing board (quite literally). I still liked the idea of circles, and decided to try my hand at pebble quilting. And how effective it is!!

However, it is also extremely intense on both one's concentration and the muscles from the neck, shoulders and down to the fingers. I find I need to take a break just about every 15 minutes or so, otherwise I start getting sloppy, and it shows! This also requires a LOT of thread! I love how the variegated thread looks with these place mats - I went with Sulky Blendables and am very happy with the outcome. However, these come in 500m spools, and I am about to start on my 3rd spool after quilting just 5 of the 8 mats. Each one is using up about 3 bobbins! I've quilted whole crib quilts with under 2 bobbins' worth of thread!! But darn it, it's going to be worth it when they're done, right??

The saga of the blue place mats

Many, many months ago a friend contacted me about making some placemats for her to give as a host(ess) gift to her brother and his partner. She did not specify a "need-by" date, which unfortunately for me means that it ends up getting pushed from the forefront of my project list more often than not. What she DID give me is a link to photographs of their kitchen and home, which had been published in a major design publication! (I probably shouldn't divulge until the set is actually finished, out of my hands and hopefully in the home of the intended recipients). Trying to work from these photos had slightly contradictory results for me: 1.) There was the added impetus to get going and whip up something fabulous to compliment this already beautiful space,
2.) But with that added pressure (totally self-inflicted, mind you) I would start going in one direction, then deem it unworthy and start over again. This happened at least 4 times.

Too dark, not to mention a bit too conservative and "strict".


A design I was very interested in, but had trouble feeling that it was coming together cohesively, so I abandoned it (for the time being).

After beginning to work with more solids, I started pulling these various blues to compliment the photos of the kitchen I saw... My next attempt was WAY beyond my skill level... a 1-patch herringbone design to mimic the brickwork in their kitchen, but my Y-seams were AWFUL! I couldn't even finish 2 mats, much less all 8!

But, I now have 8 pieced tops for placemats (and 2-3 possibilities for backings) that I am happy with, and would be almost proud to submit for this project.


Next step is to figure out how I am going to quilt these puppies! I am hoping the folks in the Flickr group How Should I Quilt This?come up with some better suggestions than I've had run through my mind!


Right now I'm leaning toward either a loose cross-hatching (more random than measured) or just going with vertical lines at various increments. Regardless of what I choose, I am imposing a deadline... Erica is due to visit Portland at the beginning of September, and I plan to have them finished enough to show her (binding may or may not be complete) in person before sending them off. She's been too lenient on me!

get to business!

A couple of months ago a friend of mine approached me about making a set of place mats for her to give as a gift to her brother and his partner. Knowing a little bit about the couple for whom they are intended, my self-editing, over-analyzing side went into overdrive. I started one project


and then another


but neither quite worked for me. At least not after studying the photos of their home that were published in an issue of House Beautiful Magazine.

So, I went back to the drawing board, quite literally, and worked on a design that found a happy medium between those two false starts, and had already settled on the one focus fabric, but decided to use only solids to compliment it, and create the full design.





I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I finally think I'm on the right track. Gonna try to get further along with these before setting anything in stone (or even posting new pics to my friend), but hope to have more to share in a couple of weeks.