This is a project I thought may be appropriate....thus the challenge to you! Would you like to help me evaluate my teaching skills? LOL I figure that if YOU are able to make them using my written instructions and photos...then surely to goodness I can teach it face to face with others. :):)
If you are willing to take on this challenge....send photos of your finished product so I can brag on you and share with everyone who follows this blog:
Email: grandmaspromise@yahoo.com
PIECE OF CAKE PIECED PLACEMENTS (set of 4)
1) You will need FOUR different fat quarters.....or FOUR different pieces of fabric that measure 18" x 22" each.
It's best to choose two (2) darker, one (1) medium and one (1) lighter color fabric that compliments each other. When choosing your fabrics, you can go with a holiday theme (Christmas, Patriotic, Fall, Valentines, etc., etc.) or choose a focal fabric that would be considered a novelty print (cows, roosters, teacups, etc., etc.)...or just pick colors that you like and match your decor. :)
I decided to make a set of seasonal placemats since Fall is just around the corner....here are my choices:
I'm considering the darker, fall colors, large leaf print as my focal print, with the mottled reddish/orange "solid" as my second darker fabric choice. The small scale olive check is my medium color choice and the cream with a small olive vine/leaf design is my light color choice.
2) Press/iron your fabric pieces to remove all wrinkles.
3) Stack them (right side up) on your cutting mat in the following order....dark (my leaf design), light (my cream), dark (my red mottled) and medium on top (my olive check).
4) Using a basic 24" long acrylic ruler and your rotary cutter....square up all four sides...
I'm sure we all have "our own way" of squaring fabric up and making sure all sides are even. Use whatever method you prefer. :)
Each person will have a slightly different measurement for their squared up pieces...depending on how much of a sliver of fabric you had to trim from each side to even up all four edges. My red fat quarter was slightly smaller than all the others, so I had to trim accordingly.
You should end up with a nice stack that is approximately 17 1/2" x 21 1/2"....
5) We will be making our first cuts up the long (approx. 21 1/2" ) side of our stack.
Using your long acrylic ruler, measure in 3" to make your first cut. Since we are cutting through four layers of fabric, make sure your blade is nice and sharp!
We will call this first 3" wide strip as our "A" strip.....
As a safety precaution to make sure I have successfully cut through all four layers of fabric....I always gently lift the stack of uncut fabric away from the cutting line. If there is a section that I missed, I gently lay it back down and correct my error. I NEVER move my ruler until I am certain I have a clean cut!!!!! (P.S. I often times will place something small and heavy....like my hubby's tape measure above....on my ruler just to help hold it in place while I'm cutting and then making sure the cut included all my fabrics. :)
6) For our second cut....measure in 2"....
We will refer to this 2" strip as "B" strip...
7) For our third cut....measure in 2"....
We will refer to this 2" strip as "C" strip.....
8) For our fourth cut....measure in 4"....
We will refer to this 4" strip as "D" strip ....
The final strip of fabric that is now left will be approximately 5 1/2" to 6" wide...it will be referred to as "E" strip.
Turn your cutting mat so your strips are now horizontal. By turning the cutting mat, you can see easily how the placemats should look at this point in the construction...
Now the fun part starts........
9) Working with "B" strip (second strip from the top)...move the top layer/fabric strip to the bottom of the stack.....
10) Working with "C" strip (third strip from the top)....move the top TWO layers/fabric strips to the bottom of the stack.....
11) Working with "D" strip (fourth strip from the top)...move the BOTTOM layer/fabric strip to the TOP of the stack.....
Do NOT move any layers in you're top (A) and bottom (D) sections. :)
Your stack of fabric strips should now look like this.....
To keep from getting confused...it is best to completely construct each placemat top before starting the next one.....sew each strip, right sides together, using a 1/4" seam....
You should end up with something like this.....
Without touching your remaining stacked strips of fabric, the second layer of strips should look like this....sew the strips together....
The third layer of strips should look like this....sew the strips together....
The final layer of strips should look like this....sew the strips together....
12) Now it's time to take all four of the sewn placemats to the the ironing board and press the seams OPEN. I know that in the quilting world, we're usually told to press all seams to one side or the other...but in this case, to reduce the bulk of fabric we will be sewing together in the next steps...it makes it easier to simply press all the seams open this time. :) :)
13) After you have finished ironing all the seams open...bring everything back to your cutting mat and lay each placemat on top of the other...right side up.
Make sure you get everything straight...with all the seams matched up....you may even want to use a few straight pins to pin the layers together near each seam so they don't slide when making the next cuts.
If you find that the placemats are not quite the same size, you should square them all up at this time just like you did in the beginning. Thankfully, all four of my mats ended up being the same size so I am able to continue to the next step without any trouble.
At this point, I turned my entire cutting mat around so that the mats now look like this.....
Trust me...because of the cuts we need to now make....turning the cutting mat around (which means our placemats are now upside down)....makes life so much easier as we continue.... :) :)
14) Using your long acrylic ruler once again, measure in from the left edge of the stack 3" and cut through all four layers....
15) Now measure in another 2" inches and cut through all layers....
16) Now measure in another 2" inches and cut through all layers....
This is what your stack of fabric should look like at this point.....
You probably think I'm crazy by now....but just trust me.....turn your cutting mat around one last time so that when you look down at your project it now looks like this....
Remove the pins and let's have some more fun rearranging our strips of fabric.....
Looking at your strip stacks now....(from left to right)....DON'T touch the first very wide strip of fabric on the left.
17) Move to the second strip of fabric which is 2" wide....move the top two layers of fabric to the bottom of the stack...
18) Now look at the third strip of fabrics which is also 2" wide....move the BOTTOM layer of fabric to the TOP of the stack....
DON'T touch the last strip of fabric on the right. :) :)
Your project should look like this.....
Do you see the pattern that has emerged before your eyes? :) :)
19) Sew the strips together using a 1/4" seam....I found it easier to sew the widest strip (on left) to the strip on it's right together first....etc., etc.
The second layer should look like this....sew the strips together....
The third layer should look like this....sew the strips together.....
The final layer should look like this....sew the strips together.....
20) Now all four placemat tops are complete....take them to the ironing board and this time you can press all the seams to one side. :)
Now you should have a coordinated, adorable set of four placemats tops....
All that's left to do is finish and quilt as you wish. I plan to use the "pillowcase" method. Don't you think these would make lovely gifts?
This idea was taken from a pattern called "TakeFour"...for Something Sew Fine Quilt Design.
If you enjoyed making this project, you may be interested in purchasing the pattern because it shows you how to come up with a total of 5 different placemat designs simply in the way you cut and flip the strips of fabric used.
As I mentioned earlier...I would truly appreciate hearing from anyone who decides to make this project themselves. Let me know what you think. Were the instructions clear? Did the photos help? Do you think there is any hope of me being able to teach others how to do this face to face? :)
By the way....I was able to complete these tops (choosing my fabric fat quarters, cutting, sewing and ironing) in one evening.
Happy quilting!
I like this , will try it, let you know how it goes -- lcb
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