What an honor to be chosen to contribute to one of my favorite websites! My name is Chris Warnick from Frecklemama.com. I am here today to share a tutorial for a set of six personalized placemats. My set is specifically a set of Christmas placemats for my sister’s family including one for Santa. You can use this tutorial to make any kind of placemat with personalization in the center or even replace the personalization block with two additional charm squares. I tried to include lots of pictures so that even a beginner could tackle this project. This is an easy and quick project perfect for a holiday gift!
2 Charm Packs (I used Kate Spain’s 12 Days of Christmas)
1/3 yard Moda Bella White for background of personalization blocks
1 1/4 backing fabric (I used SKU 27029 the Ornaments fabric)
6 pieces of batting 15″x22″
420″ length of binding (if using 2.5″ binding you will need 10 strips x WOF so you will need 3/4 yard of fabric – I used Moda Christmas Red)
Heat’n Bond or other fusible of your choice
You can add embellishments to the background of the personalization blocks by sewing on beads, snowflake buttons, embroidering details, etc.
First select 10 charm squares to use for each placemat. Set aside.
Cutting:
Cut your white background fabric into 6 rectangles measuring 9.5″x5″ each.
Cut your backing fabric into 6 rectangles measuring 22″x15″ each.
Cut 10 binding strips your desired binding width (2.5″) times the WOF.
Applique:
Print out your names on computer paper. I think I used the font Tempus put into bold and printed in size 200. You can place your 9.5″x5″ white rectangles over your printed names to see how it will look.
Next flip your printed name page over to the backside. You will use this method for each letter separately:
Use a sharpie to trace your letter so that it becomes the mirror image of the original letter. THIS is what you will use for your Heat’n Bond.
Place your Heat’n Bond over your letter and use your marker to trace the backwards letter onto the paper side of the Heat’n Bond.
Select a charm square for your letter fabric. Iron the Heat’n Bond letter to the wrong side of the charm square:
Cut out your letter. Notice that I chose to leave a little extra room around my letter to make it bigger. You do NOT need a seam allowance on these letters.
Peel away the Heat’n Bond paper from the letter:
Note: Layout all of your letters before ironing them onto your background rectangle. Iron the letter, fusible/wrong side down, onto the right side of your white background rectangle.
Using a blanket stitch, sew down the edges of the letters. I suggest using thread to match the colors of your applique letters but in this photo I used a contrasting green so that you could see my blanket stitch.
Piecing:
Once all of your 9.5″x5″ name rectangles are finished, determine your placemat layout using your original placemat charm square selections.
Piece together the top row and bottom row, pressing seams according to your preference. Piece together the middle row by adding a charm square to each end of your name block.
Piece together the three rows to complete your placemat top.
Finishing:
Assemble your quilt sandwich using your backing rectangle, batting rectangle, and placemat top. Baste and quilt. For the Santa placemat I used blue painter’s tape to quilt a diagonal grid. For all the others I used a meandering free-motion stipple. I used a light green thread for quilting and it turned out nicely.
Bind, wash and dry. You may need to iron them flat again.
Six festive, personalized placemats about 13″x18″ each after washing.
Keep in mind that Moda comes out with so many wonderful Charm Packs throughout the year that you could have a set of placemats with seasonal themes, kid themes, charity sets, etc. Your personalization blocks could read “His” and “Hers”, “Peace”, “Joy”, etc. The possibilities are endless! If you use this tutorial to make placemats, please share them over on the Moda Bake Shop Flickr page or drop me a note at Frecklemama.com. Enjoy 🙂
Chris Warnick
{http://www.frecklemama.com}
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