I bought the placemat pattern from one of the out-of-town vendors at our 2015 Quilt Show – in fact it was the only thing I purchased. I picked out fabric from my stash for the background; I also had fat quarters in my stash that went well with each of the background fabrics. After reading the pattern more closely, I was afraid a fat quarter wouldn’t be enough for the blades so I purchased some lovely new colours from Crazy Quilt Cottage just after she opened for business.

 

 

I pieced the tops at the Mount Washington retreat in May, and they were surprisingly easy to make. I stitched the outer edges of the blades with decorative stitches on my machine. The appliqué was done before the pieces were sandwiched. The placemats use an envelope finish so that the binding doesn’t break the design in the middle. The quilting was done by stitching between the fan blades and extending the line out to the edge.

When the placemats aren’t in use, they come together to make a nice centrepiece.

 

I made the larger block (14.5″ x 14.5″) as a project for the Mini Meez quilt club. The pattern came from a Miniature Quilt magazine that I borrowed from our leader. When it was finished it seemed rather large for a “miniature”, even though I reduced the size of the border.

Since the pattern was made of quite simple blocks I was able to do the math and make a mini of the miniature with a finished size of 7.5 inches square.

I’m not sure what will become of these. Pat has said they make a nice table topper/hot pad combination and I might go with that!

 

Monday, May 11, 2015

The pattern was an on-line quilt-along and, since it was promised to finish by Mother’s Day, I chose it as the card for my daughters.

The pattern was meant to be a table topper, but I changed the border to make it more suitable as a wall hanging (21″ x 21″). All of the petals came from scraps. The added buttons were my own touch (mainly to cover up some less-than-great appliqued circles).

This blue one went to Christy. I did some free-motion veins in the petals but felt they looked more like leaves when they were finished. The background was a stitch-in-the-ditch grid line along the seams.

The orange one was for Elizabeth. I echoed the shape of the petal with a light gray thread and the results were much better.

I always think of purple for Kathryn. Again I echoed the petals but this time used a variegated gold thread.

A close-up view of the echo quilting.