For this week

Hello there

For this week's foray into craftiness I've finished a placemat set which has been on the go for quite some time. I got the inspiration from Liz Betts from Quilty Pleasures, who wrote an article for issue 3 of the 'Love Patchwork and quilting' magazine.

I've added my own take on it, not only by choosing different fabric but also by less obvious changes. I had the circles fabric already in my stash and then got some cotton/linen mix fabric. I did buy some of the Summersville Spring fabric that she used in the article but that will make my next set of this design of placemats. I love the way that fabric choice has such a huge impact on a design. 

Only 26 hexies ready for paper removal and
sewing in place

I marked out the hexagon's placemat sections onto the first placemat and actually started hand sewing but it didn't take me long at all to realise that 'popping knots' isn't so easy and also that hand quilting these placemats would take far too long for them to be a financially viable proposition. I'm doing a local craft fair on March 22nd and I know that all they'll want is probably Mother's Day gifts but I can still sell these online, where I have a better chance of attracting people who are interested in hand made items. Paper piecing and hand sewing 30 1.5in hexagons was more than enough handsewing to contend with for the £40 I can charge reasonably. 





That was a few weeks ago and in that time I went to my patchwork and Wendy said that King Tut is what she uses for quilting. Oh boy! Superior Threads who make it, do it in variegated colours - just look at the colour I used for this quilt - lush! It wasn't cheap at £8 but so so worth it and it's really affected the way this project developed.







I got three more online since using this  as a) there's a deal on at Barnyarns, where you can buy three for £17.95 and b) I want to have them close to hand for any future projects I need to quilt.

I've put the hexagons in slightly different
places on each placemat

I do like the way the quilting looks on the back
of the placemats too. They're definitely reversible

The worst part of this set was the binding. I decided to do the double fold technique using 2 1/4 in strips of fabric. I don't like it, as it's far too bulky at the join and round the mitred corners. I was chuffed to only have a bit of the fabric stripping left when I'd finished though.

The coasters were the best part, as they're nice and quick and easy and make the most of the King Tut thread and the hexagon shape.

I'll be working with linen mixes again. Nice.


I also managed to machine embroider a birthday card for a friend on Friday afternoon and we'd had two days of sun, so despite being full of cold in the middle of the week, I've ended the week feeling quite bright. I forgot to take photos of the card but I'll see if the recipient wouldn't mind taking some photos for me and I'll share them another day. 






For those of you who read my blog regularly, you may well remember that in January I made two Superman cape outfits for two little lads in New Zealand. I know that you liked seeing me wearing it (!!!)  but I can guarantee that you'll much prefer seeing one of the boys wearing it. I was so chuffed that they liked them.








Take care out there