Christmas table decorations

Hello there

Yes, it's definitely 'that' time of year again. Pressure on us unorganised folk to get things organised for a specific date/time. I've yet to send out the majority of my cards; only some overseas ones have been sent. One of the things I have managed to do is get my Christmas placemats and coasters made.

I made the paper rose too and the tealight holders are cool -
they're from a Partylite party I went to a few weeks ago-
there's space in the holder to place items, which you can
change to suit whatever the occasion is- brilliant idea!

I'm hoping that the astute amongst you will notice that I've done free motion quilting on them. It was the first time I've ever done a project using that method. It was great fun and obviously I got better at it as I went on. The batting is too thick really but it'll flatten once they're washed and ironed. I remembered to iron the batting before putting together the coasters, so they're not as bouncy. The main fabric of the placemats is made from old sheets. I just had to buy the starry material, of which I only needed half a metre and I got the gold thread, both from a great shop called Sew Simple in the Lady Heyes centre in Frodsham. The lady in there is so helpful, it's worth travelling a bit further for the customer service and almost knowing that they'll have what I want, as they concentrate on quilting and patchwork.

I love the effect of the quilting and of the gold thread. I do have to give thanks to Leah Day for her tutorial on making a star quilt pattern on her blog freemotionquilting. Mine don't look anything like hers but then she's been doing it for years and her machine cost at least £1500. After doing this, I really could do with a machine which has push button speed technology, an 'up/down' button for the needle, font stitches, a walking foot, a quarter inch seam foot and a few other things. That's the only trouble with crafting; there's always more you 'need' :-)

The back of some of the quilting isn't brilliant but a few of them (as I got better) are fine:

I have to confess to replacing the placemats for dinner, as we had meatballs and spaghetti, so there was no way I was going to let them get covered in pasta sauce, the very first night they were used! :-)

Take care out there