I spent a couple of weeks with Christy and Rick at the end of July. Except for Christy, no one in the family were using a quilted placemat. I’m always on the lookout for something to make for someone so I told Dylan and Taylor I would make them something.

One of the regular quilters at the Tuesday sewing bee brought in a bin of fabric scraps that she didn’t want. We were like a bunch of vultures picking out fabrics we liked and wanted to bring home.

Although Taylor’s interest may have switched from soccer to gymnastics, the centre fabric and the borders were entirely free-to-me. As backing I used a fabric that I had previously used on a set of curtains for Taylor.

I had a scrap of construction-type fabric so I used what I had as the centre for Dylan’s placemat. I can still hear him calling out “Mighty Machine” whenever we passed anything remotely looking like a construction zone.

I made a lot of math errors in this small project but I eventually got it close to a regulation-size placemat. As backing I used fabric with sporting equipment pictured on it – and Dylan has tried most of them.