Sneaky Sewing

Several weeks ago I went fabric shopping.  I had no Halloween décor for my home, so I enlisted my  friend and former coworker Amy, a huge Halloween fan, to help choose fabric for placemats to address that lack.

Those spiders are a stretch for me.  Not a spider fan over here, despite knowing that they help control pests.  The color, scale and theme were right though, so I went with it.

Halloween Fresh Wrapped placemats in progress

I chose to use my Fresh Wrapped pattern. There wasn't much cutting to do, as these are strip pieced, so the cutting and piecing were easily finished in one evening.  I then pondered what to quilt, and decided quilting in the ditch would be just fine.  The fabrics are the stars of the show in these, and since I was using Thermore for the batting,  I didn't need to quilt more densely than that.  Thermore is ideal for runners and placemats, as it has just enough loft to still show a bit of texture from quilting, but not so much loft that the surface is uneven and results in tipped beverage glasses. It also doesn't shrink, so paired with pre-washed fabric it results in a placemat that won't get too wonky after washing.

Binding Fresh Wrapped placemats

I think the binding took longer that the quilting.  Placemats are small, so it's easy to forget how much binding a table set needs.  This set has about 360".  That's 10 yards!  If you're wondering why I use so many clips, you can read all about it and the rest of my binding method here.  I've tried school glue instead of all those clips, but clearly I need to go back to kindergarten because I made a mess with the glue.  I'll stick with clips. 

Binding is rather boring, right up until it's finished.  When it's finished, I marvel at what difference the binding makes.

Halloween version of Fresh Wrapped, by Canuck Quilter Designs

By now, I'm sure you're wondering why I titled this post "Sneaky Sewing".  Remember Amy, the Halloween fan?  Her local wedding reception was on Saturday, and this was her wedding gift.  Yup, I had her pick out her own gift without telling her that's what she was doing.  I sewed it in plain sight on Instagram and Facebook, too!

What is the sneakiest sewing you have ever done?

Have you used a Jelly Roll lately?

 It's been a while since I used a jelly roll.  In fact, technically speaking, I'm not sure I have ever used an actual jelly roll, as that term is specific to Moda rolls of 2 1/2" precut strips.  I have, however, used other assorted packs of 2 1/2" strips.  I even have two strip-friendly patterns to revisit for National Sew a Jelly Roll Day today:  Sprinkled and Topiaries.

Sprinkled, made by Theresa Peterson-Smith from the Canuck Quilter pattern

I just love this version of Sprinkled, made by my friend Theresa.  It's bright and happy and easy.  It keeps  the strips mostly intact and uses a simple cut-and-replace technique to add the sprinkling of triangles. The pattern uses 36 of the strips in a pack.  Some of those 36 strips are used for the little triangles in the border and for the binding.

My version used a strip pack of Shimmer from Northcott in a single colorway, for a more serene quilt.

Sprinkled by Canuck Quilter Designs, using Northcott Shimmer strips

I recently played in EQ8 to recolor the quilt in Stonehenge Gradations fabrics.  The earth tones of the one below call to me as we head into fall, but the red and black below that one packs a punch and that's appealing too.

Sprinkled by Canuck Quilter Designs, in Stonehenge Gradations Iron Ore

Sprinkled by Canuck Quilter Designs, in Stonehenge Gradations Graphite

My second pattern is Topiaries.

Topiaries by Canuck Quilter Designs

This one uses strip piecing and snowballed corners for quick assembly.  I want to make this again in florals, and in bright primary colors, and jewel tones...

So many options.  Unfortunately,  playing with these designs in EQ is about all I'm going to manage to mark Sew A Jelly Roll Day. I didn't plan ahead so I have no jelly rolls to use to sew along today, and I don't have any suitable yardage to reduce to 2 1/2" strips either.  My daughter borrowed the car to get to work, so heading out to the quilt shop is out.  

My only options are to (A) just enjoy browsing online to have a peek at what other jelly roll projects folks are working on today, or (B) forget the jelly rolls and go sew something else.

I'm going with what we call the Winnie the Pooh option*:  both!  What's under your needle today?

* For those who did not read and watch oodles of Winnie the Pooh as a child or with a child, Pooh Bear was offered "honey or butter on your bread" and replied "Both!"

Placemat problem?

I can't lie.  I'm developing a placemat problem.  I just made two more sets, I have fabric for a third, and I have firm plans to make yet another set once the fabric I want is out in stores. 

Fresh Wrapped placemats and runner by Canuck Quilter Designs

This is Fresh Wrapped.  That gorgeous apple print has been begging to come home with me for a long time, but I never had a purpose for it before.  I'd like to say I designed these placemats just for this fabric, but that would be stretching the truth.  I designed first, then I rooted through my stash to determine I really didn't have enough of any suitable print (my stash is mostly tone-on-tone colors), then I walked through the quilt store.  The apple print jumped right out and assured me there wouldn't be a better project to finally use it.

Fresh Wrapped placemats by Canuck Quilter Designs

As in most of my placemats, the piecing is simple and you can see a bit of the design even when the table is set.  Why go to tall the trouble of piecing something fancy if it's just going to be covered up by a plate?  These are strip pieced so they are a easy and quick to assemble

Not related, but don't you just love how the green apples and the sweet potato vine in my flower boxes play so well together and help the reds pop?  I tried to photograph this set on my dining room table, but the colors just wouldn't turn out right inside, so I stepped out onto the deck to use overcast daylight for lighting.  Much better.

Pattern available here.

I'm a little sorry I had to get my pattern covers ready and sent out to distributors before I managed to take these photos.  The cover looks crisp, but at the same time the picture looks like a digital image rather than a photo of actual placemats.  It is a photo though. I used blue painter's tape on a blank wall to mark a box in the same proportions as the space on the pattern cover, so I could lay everything out to fill the cover space, then I taped the placemats and runner to the wall with green 3M painter's tape for hard-to-stick surfaces.

Photo setup for Fresh Wrapped placemats

I did the same thing for my new Flipped table set, but I'll just skip straight to the pretty styled pictures.

Flipped placemat and runner

All the angles in these Flipped placemats are made with the stitch-and-flip technique, so there are no triangles or odd shapes to cut, or cut bias edges to worry about.  They stitch up super quickly, and as you can see the plate doesn't hide the zig-zag design.  The runner is made with bonus HST units created while making the placemats.

Flipped placemats and runner by Canuck Quilter Designs

Next up in the placemat queue, I'm making a Halloween version of Fresh Wrapped.  I'd show you the fabric pull,  but it's in the dryer as I type.  I like to prewash my placemat fabrics, because I know the placemats will end up in the wash, and I like to minimize shrinking-induced wonkiness in the washed placemats.  Are you a pre-washer?  Always or just for certain projects?

As I said earlier, there are also plans for a fourth set.  That one will be yet another version of my Geese Across the Table pattern, in Northcott's Cafe Culture collection arriving in stores soon.  I'm not a coffee drinker, but I know people who are!   Here's an EQ8 peek at what the coffee-lover version will look like.

Mockup of Geese Across the Table in Cafe Culture

So, back to my placemat "problem". They're a quick way to get a "finish fix", to get that lovely feeling of finishing a project.  They are pretty but practical. They don't take as much room to store as a throw or bed quilt.  They're a great gift option for any occasion.  So, maybe it's not a problem after all!