Birthday Placemat Tutorial

We're doing something new at Quilt Guild this year. It's called "Make it Monthly". Every month we have a different idea for something guild members can make using their stash.... In February we are making Birthday Placemats. Here's the one I designed. I'll be sharing an instruction sheet for it at our February meeting, but in the meantime, here's a little tutorial: To make this placemat, you'll need 7 different fabrics from your stash, cut as follows:

focus fabric: piece 1, 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches and back piece, 18 x 24 inches

green: pieces 3 & 5, each 3 x 11 inches

brown solid: piece 4, 3 1/2 inches x 11 1/2 inches and piece 6, 4 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches

stripe: piece 2, 2 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches

candle stripe (cut on a diagonal): candle piece, 1 x 5 inches, backed with fusible web

yellow scrap: one flame piece backed with fusible web

pink: letters backed with fusible web (make sure you reverse them!)

a piece of batting 18 x 24 inches

here are the pieces all laid out:

I got the candle & letter templates from free clipart.... just do a google search! Trace them onto the fusible web, iron it onto your fabrics & cut them out.

Now you need to applique the candle & the letters onto the corresponding solid brown pieces (of course yours can be different colors! I'm just trying to make it easy for you by referring to the colors I used). I love to applique by hand with embroidery floss & a blanket stitch. Feel free to do your on the machine if you wish!

Now we're going to begin sewing it together. Lay your backing on a flat surface, right side down, & then your batting on top of it. Take piece one & place it right side up in the top right corner. Now lay piece 2 on top of piece one, face down, like this: Stitch a 1/4 inch seam across the bottom of piece 2. Flip piece 2 down, so it is face up, & press well. Continue to stitch & flip the pieces in numerical order. Here we add piece three....

and four....

and so on....

Until all of the pieces are stitched onto the backing/batting.

Trim the back & batting even with the edges and bind your placemat as desired! No need to quilt, you've already done that with the stitch & flip method.

I'd love to see your creations if you make one! Please add a picture to the ellyn's place flickr group...