Quilted Placemats and Napkins

Back of the placemat.

Fabric -The pattern calls for 4 placemats and napkins to be made, but I just doubled it and made a set of 8 (so just note that the amounts of fabrics is for 8 placemats and napkins). I used Robert Kaufman Metro Living in four different colors for the outside of the front of the placemats (I got 1/2 yard of each), and I used Alexander Henry On the Spot in blue for the outside of the back of the placemats (2 yards). The back of the placemats is a lovely fork, knife, and spoon fabric called Metro Utensils (2 yards). I had extra of the Metro Utensils leftover from the placemats, so I used the rest to make the main panels of the napkins, so it worked out perfectly. The pieced front circles of the placemats is Ann Kelle Metro Market pears in aqua, Ann Kelle Remix in Argyle summer, and Alexander Henry Willow Berries in the two different-sized berry prints (1/2 yard each).

Pattern Pieces – This was a .pdf pattern, and there were just 3 pattern pieces to cut out (two different-sized circles and the flower piece). The pieces, however, were halved, and so just needed to be taped together.

Illustrations/Instructions -The photos and illustrations that accompanied this pattern were really nicely done and very helpful to assembling the placemats. I especially liked the table at the beginning of the instructions; since you have the option to use many different fabrics to make these, it was nice to see everything organized in a table to help keep track of what fabric you’re using for which portion of the placemat.

The front of the placemat is assembled using 5 fabric strips the width of the fabric. I used this technique when I made my Postage Stamp Quilt. Then these long blocked strips are cut again into 3″ strips and sewn together in another set of 5. Brilliant and beautiful.

Before I continue, I’m going to stop you right there because this is important. USE FABRIC GLUE. This wasn’t mentioned in the pattern instructions, but I sewed the circles onto 3 of the flowers, pinning the heck out of them, and getting puckers in my fabric each time. Finally, I got a fabric glue stick at the store and it worked like a charm, perfect on the first try. So just…get the glue and save yourself a lot of headaches.

Basically, there is a lot of assembly required, but you sew one solid circle onto a flower piece, sandwich a piece of flower batting with that sewn piece and the outside flower of the front of the placemat (in my case, the Robert Kaufman Metro Living solids with the white rings), and turn right side out. After that, you sew the circle onto the front of the placemat (the pieced circle), and then quilt up the whole thing. There is a lot of time that goes into making these placemats, but besides getting your circles glued on, lol, nothing is extremely complicated.

I wasn’t going to make the placemats that are also included in the sewing pattern, but I had extra fabric of my lovely forks and spoons fabric, so I used that for the napkins. The napkins are lined, and there is an option to have an applique (but I didn’t do that).

The only modification that I made to this pattern is that it calls for you, in one of the final steps, to either applique or blind hem stitch the front (pieced) circle of the placemat onto the flower. Instead of doing this, I just basted the circle, pressed it under, and topstitched, just like the pattern called for to attach the circle onto the back of the pattern. It worked out great. Oh! Also, when I quilted it, I didn’t stitch-in-the-ditch, I quilted 1/4″ off of each seam.

Napkin

Conclusion -I would recommend this pattern for an intermediate sewer. Even if you have never quilted before, this would be great to get your feet wet because it is quilting on such a small scale. Lately I’ve been piecing the fronts of quilts and setting them to the side to quilt at a later date, because I don’t particularly enjoy that last step. But this was fun because I could actually quilt through all of the layers and be done in short order because…just look at how small it is. 🙂 Amanda Murphy has designed such a lovely pattern…your living room table needs these!

P.S. I’m posting this project for Sew Modern Monday, Fabric Tuesday, and Sew and Tell Friday!