Placemats :: Lots and Lots of Placemats!

Back in January I was asked if I could make custom placemats.  Not just any placemats, placemats from a drawing they had made from tile they had seen.  Tile can be a big inspiration for quilt ideas and upon seeing the drawing I thought it was something I could figure out.  

My version may not be exactly like the drawing, but she was totally fine with that.  Mostly it was about the shapes, colors and size.  

12" x 15"

It took a while for me to figure out the best way to go about it.  How do I make each one the same?  How can I make sure each point, each intersection will line up?  Can I do it on EQ7? I pondered.  I played.  I drew shapes and cut them out like a puzzle.  

My first thought was to work with a top and bottom section. (horizontal)  It didn't work exactly the way I wanted it to.  Eventually I figured out that if I made two rows of triangles it just might work. There was still the issue of making each placemat, each section, each piece and each color line up...but I came up with the solution!



Paper pieced!  Only because I needed certain sections to line up and only because each placemat had to be the same.  Yes, it was a lot of work!  It looks relatively simple, and in all honestly it was once the math and templates were figured out.  I made a test placemat, sent off fabric swatches and waited for the thumbs up.    

I should mention that I needed to make sixteen (16)...yes, you read that right!  Sixteen placemats!  Which is why I needed approval on the colors and test out my pattern.  You might wonder why anyone would need that many placemats?!  She said she her children tend to make a mess while eating...and this way she could just switch them out every time. 



Here's a close up of one finished placemat.  You see how the top pink needed to line up? And the light gray on the top right that needed to line up with the light gray on the bottom? That was the reason I thought paper piecing each triangle was my best option.

I printed templates and marked them with numbers (previous picture), and colored each section in the triangles so I wouldn't mess anything up.  Triangle one...sixteen times.  Press. Trim. Repeat.  Then I stitched each triangle in the top section, then the bottom section...

 

...then stitched the top and bottom together...yes...sixteen times!  Here's the proof!  They all matched!  I'm sure you won't surprised when I tell you that after seeing all these on the design wall, I started getting ideas for a quilt or three!!  Another time perhaps!



You might think the hardest part was done, and in some ways it was.  But imagine this: trimming 16 placemats, cutting 16 pieces of batting and backing, making 16 sets of binding, and then quilting 16 placemats, sewing the bindings on and eventually hand stitching each and every binding to the back!  

I cannot lie, this process from start to finish became very repetitive and mind numbing by the end!  I know I shouldn't complain and I'm not...it was a lot.  A lot!

 

Usually I make my placemats larger than the 12" x 15" requested.  These days you have to be flexible with the 'norm'.  You have to consider table size and shape to living space available. 

In the end, I love these placemats!  I'm so happy I was able to work with a design, figure out the best way to achieve it and actually complete it.  Plus, it gave me ideas for future projects!  And if that's not enough...I had scraps...leftovers!  And got a little crazy and make a quilt with them!  To be continued...

LINKING:

Needle & Thread

TGIFF

Crazy Mom Quilts

Finished or Not Friday

Oh Scrap

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