I was contacted in early December by a friend wondering if I had time to make a set of 4 placemats for her by Christmas. And since she needed to ship the placemats, that really meant they needed to get done in a week and a half. Fortunately, I had no Christmas crafting / sewing plans of my own, so I was happy to sneak in this quick project for her. She really loves the Tessellated Leaves quilt that I have been working on, and it was thankfully a pattern that works well in a placemat size. I like rectangular placemats to finish around 12.5-inches tall by 18.5-inches wide, and that means a block and a half of the Tessellated Leaf pattern is just right.
My friend and I met at a local fabric store where she picked out some batik fabrics that really spoke to her and that she thought her mother (the intended gift recipient) would like. I quickly pieced together the placemat tops and quilted them with an all over meandering leaf pattern. I used my domestic sewing machine (Olive) to to this free motion quilting. With the needle set all the way to the left, it worked well and I am happy to report that Olive did not drop any stitches. Yay!
Tessellated Leaves Placemats – Quilting Detail
Before attaching the binding, I pinned it on to evaluate how it would work and sent my friend several photos to make sure she was happy with this final fabric choice.
Tessellated Leaves Placemats – Binding Evaluation
Deciding to move forward with the binding, I was able to finish up the placemats and deliver them to my friend on December 12th, leaving her plenty of time to get them wrapped and shipped to her mother for Christmas!
Tessellated Leaves Placemats – Completed Tops
Tessellated Leaves Placemats – Completed Backs
My friend sent me a quick note to let me know how much her mother appreciated this handmade gift: “My mom kept raving about the placemats you made her for Christmas! She said they were the BEST gift of all and was extremely impressed with the high quality of your work.” 🙂
I really like the colors you used in these placemats. They are beautiful. What a lovely gift for your friend’s mother!
These look fantastic. I love how subtle the leaves are.
I like how the place mats are bright and subtle at the same time. I think batiks work well to represent the leaves, and I’m especially fond of that bright teal fabric.
Beautiful placemats. I don’t know why I never think of placemats for gifts, they’re quick and have that handmade love feeling about them!
They’re beautiful, Yvonne! I’m glad Olive played nice for you 🙂
Your quilting is perfect! Great to hear Olive is behaving well 🙂
They turned out beautiful! I love seeing the quilt pattern in different fabrics and the leaf quilting looks great on the batiks!
Like how the batik fabrics work with this pattern. The color changes are more muted and subtle. It’s hard to see where one block starts and another one ends. I like it a lot.
Interesting to see the pattern with other fabric. And how lovely to get such appreciative feedback. But what is going on that you had no Christmas sewing of your own??? Surely that is just not allowed!
I love batiks. They have such fabulous variation in their colours, don’t they? The placemats turned out beautifully, and how wonderful to have such great feedback!