Welcome to SewVeryEasy, my name is Laura. Placemats are a lot of fun to make because they're like making miniature quilts. They're quick and easy and they're easy to handle. I have a very unique shape for a placemat and that unique shape gives it a lot of different possibilities. The fabric has been sent to me by Annie's Creative Quilters Fabric Club/ What it is, is a fat quarter of the month club where you get a package of six fat quarters in the mail nd you get a free pattern that goes with that particular fabric bundle. You have patterns that you can use with the bundles and you can save these patterns and use them after. I'm going to be making the placemats for a nice summer table and I'm going to use the Heavenly Hydrangeas. I'm going to take this pattern and put it aside for another project. The fabric has two of the floral prints with the hydrangeas on it: A nice dark blue, some greens, and a nice medium. We will need six fat quarters to make these placements I'm going to use my marking system that I like to use with my little pins. Each of these flathead floral pins I've put the letter of the alphabet on so I can correspond my numbers with the pattern. I'll put a link in this description to the cutting directions for the fat quarters. Before I start I do like to put the corresponding pins right in my paper pattern piece. As I cut, I take the pin out and I put it right there on that stack of fabric so at a glance, I know that I have everything cut out and as I'm sewing I know what I'm sewing together. Some of these are going to be able to be cut two fat quarters together at the same time. I have a little note that says "place two fat quarters together and cut both the same." So I have two piles that are going to be cut together and the other two are going to be just cut singular. the first page has a bit of a diagram on how the block is going to go together. My lights are going to be cut from two different fat quarters, and I'm going to be cutting A, C, and H. Let's start with the very first page. The fat quarters need to be pressed. We're going to stack them on top of each other. Place both the fat quarters together so both sides are right-side up. I have the selvages I'm going to be able to trim off. I'm going to take off that selvage and I'm going to be cutting both sides at the same time. With fat quarters you have a longer side and a shorter side. By keeping that in mind you're going to be able to cut the fabric going in the right spot and that's going to maximize the fat quarters. The first thing I need to cut is sixteen of these H pieces which are 2" by 13". Because the fabric is doubled I only need to cut eight strips. That will give me my sixteen pieces. Depending on the length of the fat quarter, you might be able to get your extra 2"on the end versus here. I was able to cut my eight strips at 2" by 13" then the leftover I was able to get my extra 2" squares so I have this left over. I'm going to transfer my pins to my strips. From the first two fat quarters put together I have a total of sixteen long strips 2" by 13", eight of each color; twelve of both of the 2" squares for A and C. The next set we're also going to be cutting both together at the same time. We're going to be cutting B and G. Same thing: Press both those layers together. For G and B I need to cut some big squares. Now these are just guidelines. Your fabric might be slightly different, so use the best layout that you can find. With those 6½" squares we need to cut them on the diagonal once. I like to do it even before I move my fabric. Now I can stack my fabrics together. I now have a total of sixteen triangular pieces. On the bottom and side I still have some fabric so I'm going to be able to cut from either one of these and I'm going to try to use up the smaller pieces first. I need a total twenty-four 2" squares. Bsoth those fabrics are still together. D is only cut out with one fat quarter. Twenty-four D's at 2" by 5". Two final pieces left: E and F. E is a 2½" by 2", and F is a 2½" square. I'm going to cut this entire piece at 2½". From those 2½" strips I'm going to cut E and F. I have thirty-six E's, 2½" by 2", and twenty-four F's, 2½" square. All my pieces have been cut out and all of my corresponding labels are right on those pieces. I do have some leftover fabric. G and H an be put aside for now. We're going to work on half a block at a time. Let's put the block together right on the board. We're going to need a total of twelve blocks. We have twenty-four of these long D's. We need to divide them in half. We're going to have that one long side with a B up in the corner and the other D attached to it. A in the corner. B we get to divide up and put them on both sides of that A. The E's and F's have been cut oversize so they're going to be able to be trimmed down. Divide your F pile, the 2½" squares, in half and place them on the end of those long strips. They're not going to match and that's okay. Divide your E pile into three. The E's are going to go on the end so the last row is going to have all of the greens. This is all going to go together, even though some of the pieces don't look like they're going to fit. The first to sew together is A, B, and E. If you turn it the wrong way you're going to see that it's not matching. We need all the 2" sides matching together. With those three pieces together, press the seams going into the center one. Another B and an E are going to go together. That E is only going to fit in one direction. Press the seams up towards the smaller block. That last pile of E is going to fit onto this unit. You want the longer piece going towards the longer edge. When you fold it open you're going to have a big corner here. Press the seam towards that green. We're going to put these two units together. Match up the seams and stitch, coming right off that corner. Press that seam going towards that single block. Twelve of the D pieces are going to match right along that side. Press the seam out. Put a 2½" square right onto that bottom. Match up the two edges; stitch down. Press that seam going out. We have three pieces left. Sew C onto D. Press C going towards that long piece. We need to put these two units together. You will notice that you will have a little bit of a difference here. We're going to take care of that corner when we put this on. Just put these two together and stitch all the way down, coming right off. When that seam has been done, press it going out. We need to take those 2½" squares and put them on this end. We don't really even need to trim it. We're going to use the square as a guide. Match that 2½" square up to this edge, which means it's going to hang down a bit. Stitch all the way down, just using the edge of this fabric. It does seem a little odd, but this piece is going to accommodate any seam allowance, and it will be squared all off after. That is how that little corner looks. When this is pressed back, it's giving you a big seam allowance here. Put these aside. We need to put G and H together. Eight in each color. We need to sew these two units together. We need to find the center of that long piece and match it with that point. We'll have eight units of each. One stack, press the seam going in one direction. The other stack, press the seam going up. We have sixteen of these little hat units; eight of each color. Take four out of one stack and put it aside. These units now need to be stitched together. We need to trim off these points. I'm going to take a long ruler with a ¼" mark and I'm going to have that ¼" come out from each of these points. I like to do a generous ¼", which is a ¼" plus maybe two threads. And trim. Lay the pieced one over top of the strip one. Match up the cut edge to the edge of the fabric, just making sure that the point is close together. Then stitch down. We now can trim this down to an 8" square. That diagonal line is going to go on that last line that you stitched. Once all the pieces are trimmed down we need to trim down the four last halves. Because we don't have this extra piece on it, we're going to use this measurement to get this measurement. Everybody's seam allowance is a little bit different, so we're going to use the squared-up block as a measurement. Place those two hats together so those two seams match up. Everybody's is going to be slightly different, but this is one way of making it perfectly fit for your block. Carefully place the ruler over top of your square and over top of that little hat, and trim off that extra. You'll have a little dog ear on each side. Without removing that square, you can trim off those little dog ears. Now that little hat is going to match this little hat. The four hat blocks that did not have anything attached to it is going to go on one side. That same color is going to go opposite. Divide the next eight blocks in half. This is the shape that we're going to have. When it's put together, it's going to look like we've spent all this time by mitering all of these corners, but there's no mitering involved. The blocks are going to be sewn together in rows. Flip them over and stitch ¼". From there you're going to put those two sides together. You can finish them any way you want. I like to traditionally do them with a little row of binding. I love the look of the binding. I've just done an overall butterfly pattern. When you set this on the table, this is going to go along the edge of the table so the points will all be pointing inside. This unusual shape gives it a lot of different opportunities. It will look great on a round or a square table. Even a long rectangular table would look nice. When you've finished dinner and you want to set the table and have a nice quilted centerpiece, it's very easy. You're just going to be able to put your blocks together and you get a nice table topper. We can still change it to get a couple of more different designs. If you have two of them turned sideways you're going to have these triangular pieces peeking out from the table so you'll be able to see your table in both areas. Turning the next two means you'll be able to have a nice big square piece for the center and a big square table topper. It doesn't matter which way it sits; it's going to look nice. We can also have it turned into a table runner. Overlap the center or you can overlap all of the placemats. Overlap again, you have a different look. Four placemats in an unusual shape gives you a whole lot of different possibilities. Just think of all of the different fat quarter combinations you could use. The placemats took six fat quarters, one yard for the backing, and half a yard for the binding. The measurement of the placemats from point to point is going to be about 21". From the point to the flat end, 16". So with these four unique shapes we're able to get a lot of different arrangements for the table. And if we had six or more it would even give us more opportunities. I'd like to thank Annie's Creative Quilters Fabric Club for sending me this fabric to play with, and as always, Thank you for joining me today on SewVeryEasy. Feel free to subscribe and, as always, come on back. Let's see what we're sewing next time
in the sewing room. Bye for now!
