Fabric Postcards

In between attempting to make six baby/cot size quilts that I wrote about here I'm taking an occasional break and making some placemats.

Last year I quilted a wall hanging for a friend who had created the blocks on her embroidery machine using a programme that had some local landmarks in it.

This is the wall hanging as I was quilting it:

My generous friend, as a way of thanking me, made me some of the same blocks but in totally different colours. I thought they'd come out quite well with some framing and some quilting around them. Since I have 8 of these, you may see some more shortly, but here are the first two:

Its almost difficult to recognize these as the top two blocks in the wall hanging, but they are. The binding is clearly not finished on the second one, but I'm happy with how they're coming along. As they will be a gift once they're all made I hope the recipients get to visit some of these places too. 

They finish up at a generous 18" by 15" but I like to have a larger size rather than something that will only just fit beneath a plate. That way even if you only use a couple, they work quite well. 

The challenge is always juggling the borders so that despite the orientation of the blocks horizontally or vertically (dictated by the shape of the embroidered buildings) you end up with the same sized placemat. But I'm sure all that figuring out is good for the brain. 

The fun thing about smaller projects like this is that sitting hand sewing the binding is quite a soothing thing to do at the end of the day and it gives a great sense of achievement - even if it's only one placemat. 

So on to the remaining ones and back to those baby quilts. Definitely keeping me busy!

Until next time,

Lynn 

What's Up Pussycat?

I've heard it said that people are either dog people or cat people. I guess if that's so, then I'm a dog person. My sister-in-law, however, does not fit the saying - she has 2 dogs and 3 cats. So when I saw some Michael Miller fabric with cats on it, I thought of her, with her birthday this month.

These were fun to make. I had the other fabrics in my stash and the organic (sounds so much better than free-range or wandering which is what I think of) quilting works well for placemats. I began by thinking I might go around the cats - as cats prefer people to do! But in the end the lines won over.
While the fabric calls these Siamese cats, I think my sister-in-law's may be Burmese. When I look after my niece (a very cute 18 month old) one of the cats comes and sits beside me as I read and my niece naps. So I wonder if the cat doesn't realise I'm a dog person):

I realised that I don't often use the varied stitches that are available on my machine - its mostly a hard working piecing and quilting machine. So I thought on the binding I'd try one of the many shapes. I chose hearts (because my sister-in-law will like those) but once on I thought they looked a little like cats paws or even cats ears. I also used a thin flange (?) or piping around the binding - mostly because I was concerned I would run out of the black, but also because it does tie in with the light brown that I'd used in the mats.

The backing is just a light beige - could be a change from the cats.
So now I'm looking forward to passing then on as a gift on Wednesday. One squirrel less to chase.

Until next time,
Lynn