Crazy Quilted Placemat

A couple of weeks ago I made a Crazy Quilted placemat, as a sample for a class I am doing in April.

They do look really effective and the best bit is you can use any scraps you have laying about, although I did use a fat-quarter pack that went together for this one.

So, what you do is this.....  Take a piece of cotton  (pillowcases are cheap and cheerful in supermarkets and you can get a few out of it), and a piece of wadding - not too thick.  I used a piece of A4 paper as my template.

Next, get your fabric ready - this is the fat-quarter pack I used, but you don't need a huge amount to make these.

Lay your white cotton on top of your wadding, then cut a little square of fabric - no need to be too fussy about the size, just chop a bit off.   If you wish you can use two pieces of white fabric and sandwich your wadding, this saves it catching on the sewing machine.

With a sewing machine sew your square onto the middle of the fabric - just randomly.

All four sides.

Now take another piece of fabric, in another colour, and match the length to one side of the square - any side.

Turn it face down and with the sewing machine sew down the length.

Time to get the iron out now - it is quite important to press each piece as you go, otherwise you will end up with wrinkled work.

Pretty!

Take another piece of fabric, and again, match the length to any edge.

Turn it face down, sew it in place and press it back.

Repeat, adding pieces of different colours onto different edges.  Remember to press with the iron each time you add a new piece.

Continue....

... until you have filled the whole space with pieces.   Trim your work to match the size of the cotton underneath.  (sorry about the blurry photo!!)

Now cute a piece of fabric the same size, this is going to be your backing.

Put the two pieces together, RIGHT SIDE to RIGHT SIDE  (very important this bit!) and sew all four sides, but leaving a small, 3", gap in one side to turn the work the right way in again.

Trim off the corners close to the stitching, but be very careful not to cut into your stitches.  This will make the corners less bulky when you turn it back the right way.

Give it a good ironing so it lays nice and flat.

Sew up the 3" gap by hand using nice neat little stitches.

Now take it to the sewing machine and sew a top stitch all the way round.  

Voilà!

A closer look...

Now you need to go and make another 3, (5,7,9 - whatever you need for your table  :)

You could also make coasters to match!

If you fancy coming to my workshop and learning how to do it by having a go, then you can find the details HERE on my website.  But hurry, there are only 6 places on this class :)