Christmas Placemats

I'm off work this week, so I've been spending a lot of time in my craft room. I ❤️ my craft room so much! 

Today, I finished these Christmas placemats:

I thought, since I have some time and I think they came out pretty well, that I would share how to make them.

First, I selected 6 different Christmas fabrics. I actually bought the fabric last year, but didn't get around to doing anything with them until this week.

I cut one of the fabrics to 15"x21" (you will need 4-6 of these depending in how many placemats you will be making). Them I cut 6 pieces of batting to 12"x18".

I cut the remaining 5 fabrics into the following dimensions:

Fabric 1- 9.5"x12"

Fabric 2, 3, and 4- 2.75"x12"

Fabric 5- 2.25"x12"

(You will need 4-6 of each of these fabrics).

Here are my cut fabrics:

To assemble the placemats, first you will place the 15"x21" fabric right side down. This will be the backing of your placemats. I did this on top of my cutting mat so it was easier to see where to place the batting.

Next you will center the batting on top of the backing fabric:

For the top of the placemat, you will place Fabric 1 on top of the batting right side up, lining up the left edge. I did pin the fabric on the left side. Then you will place one strip of Fabric 2 right side down on top of Fabric 1:

Take the whole placemat "sandwich" to the sewing machine and sew the pieces together on the right side. Use a walking foot if you have it. Then iron the fabric pieces open.

At this point, I quilted Fabric 1 using straight lines approximately 2.5 inches apart. Since I scrapbook, too, I just grabbed a scrap of card stock I had in my pile and used it as a guide. You could leave this part unquilted if you want, or you could quilt the lines closer together. 

After Fabric 1 was quilted, I added Fabric 3 to Fabric 2 the same way I added Fabric 2 to Fabric 1. I continued until Fabric 5 was sewn on. 

At this point, I realized my quilt math was a little off so I flipped the placemat upside down, pulled the backing fabric out of the way and trimmed the fabric to the edge of the batting:

So now the placemat is ready for the binding. I used the "cheater" binding method. A tutorial can be found at: http://www.made-by-rae.com/2010/10/rae-pretends-she-can-quilt-and-shares-a-quick-quilting-tutorial/.

After pinning all the sides of the binding, I simply sewed around the edges. Easy Peasy! 

I love how these placemats turned out, and can't wait to see how they look on my dining room table! 

Superman Quilt

I made this quilt for my son, Zachary. 

I love this quilt sooo much. It is the 1st twin size quilt I have made. It took awhile but it came out so good!

Here is the quilt I used as my pattern:

http://creativechicksatplay.blogspot.com/2010/02/orange-mango-tango-quilt.html?m=

I have been wanting to make Zachary a quilt  for awhile, and after finding Superman fabric at the quilt shop he finally agreed. Here is the fabric that I used:

Four patterns of Superman fabric plus a maroon batik, yellow cotton and a star pattern I found at Joann's (my favorite store).

This is a disappearing 9 patch with a black border to separate some of the blocks. It was so easy! I really enjoyed making this quilt, and I hope Zachary enjoys using it for years to come.

(The quilt hanging up in my craft room!)  The borders look brown here, but they're really black.

Next quilt-a denim recycle quilt for my hubby. The ideas are endless!