How many quilting books do you have?
What is the oldest publication in your book collection?
Bea, from Beaquilter.com is hosting the Dust Off a Quilt Book blog hop. Her idea was to find an old (to participants) quilt book or magazine on our shelves and make something from it. It could just be that we are inspired by it or that we make just a block from it and turn it into a small quilt or bag or mug rug. It was really up to us!
I've been quilting since 1976 and I knew I had old books among all my books. (The photo shows about 1/3 of the books I have!)
The book I chose was published in 1977. The cover quilt had interested me when I chose it from the freebie table at a guild meeting a few years ago. For the blog hop, I chose to make something smaller from the "Contemporary Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt" pattern on the cover. The original pattern makes a large twin size quilt.
I have the Rose of Sharon #2 by Sharon Pederson die by Accuquilt which made cutting lots of flower so easier!
I decided I would make a few placemats for the summer. I chose scraps of Island Batik fabrics I still had from my time as an Island Batik Ambassador 2 years ago.
Making the Placemats:
I am sure you can see the basic concept of the pattern from the book. I devised my own method to make the placemats.
I gathered green fabric for the background for the flowers. Not much of the green would show, so it didn't have to be fancy fabric. The book pattern uses muslin. I cut the pieces 12-1/2" x 16-1/2".
I sewed batting scraps together with zig zag stitches and this would go under the green background foundation.
I used my GO! cutter to cut the batik scraps into the largest flowers. I arranged 11 larger flowers on the green background and batting (see finished placemat above). I sewed around the petals 3 times with my free motion foot. It gave a good outline and wonky was fine.
I got a tip from Lea Day, when I stopped at the longarm booth at the AQS Houston Quilt Show in November. She said when free motion quilting, if you go slightly off your path, just sew around 2 or 3 times and it looks like you meant to quilt that design.
I added the 12-1/2" x 16-1/2" backing piece. This was some extra green I had in my stash. BUT, I wanted to give the flowers more dimension and fun personalities than the book pattern showed. I layered a smaller cutout and a center circle on one of the larger flowers that I just appliqued down. I tacked them in place with a wash-away glue stick. I sewed around the flower centers two times and on the 3rd time around, I stitched a straight line out toward the V in the smaller petals to help hold them down just a bit.
Some of the loose petals had to be pinned back so they did not get sewn into another one. I also pinned them back away from the edges when I squared the sides to 12" x 16" and when I sewed on the binding.
This was a fun project and I will be ready for summer dining!
Here is the list of bloggers you will want to visit.
Monday Feb 18th
Turid at densyendehimmel
Pamela at Pamelaquilts
Joan at Moosestashquilting
Anne at seems like a plan
Susan at Desertsky Quilting
Selina at Selinaquilts
Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing
Tuesday Feb 19th
Cindy Stitchin at home
Jennifer at curlicuecreations
Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns
Kathy at Kathysquilts
Wednesday Feb 20th
Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts
Suzy at Websterquilt
Nancy at patchworkbreeze
Brenda at songbirddesigns
Karrin at karrinscrazyworld
Denise at craftraditions
Thursday Feb 21st
Anita at Domestic Felicity
Leanne at Devoted Quilter
Jennifer at Dizzyquilter
Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks
Lee Anne at Podunk Pretties
Andree at quiltinglearningcombo
Lyndsey at Sew Many Yarns
Friday Feb 22nd
Bea at Beaquilter
Barbara at Bejweledquilts
Laura at slice of pi quilts
Sherry Powered By Quilting
Pat at Life in the Scrapatch
Carol at Just let me quilt
Kathy at Kathy's Kwilts and More
Marian at seams to be sew
20 comments:
Pretty place mats. I like how you went your own way in making the flowers dimensional.
awesome table placemat! and look at all those books!! wow!
and I love the triple black sloppy lines for applique :)
Great project! I've made some three dimensional flowers like that, with a different shape. It was a lot of fun. I have that book!
Your flowers are beautiful on the placemats and I love the dimensional look. Thanks for sharing!
so pretty. what a wonderful tip about FBQ, thanks for sharing that and your lovely piece. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
What a great project. Thanks for sharing you gorgeous project!
Love the old pattern mixed with the new tools and construction. The end result is wonderful.
Such a quilt book library! I am amazed.
I too have that book and collect all the retro ones I can find.
I also have a sewing book published in the 1940s that runs circles around any newer publications.
Such a fun and colourful way to reinterpret the book pattern. Your table will look amazing with those placemats on it.
Someone gave me that book because it was left over from her garage sale. The quilt that you made is my favorite in the book. Your placemat is adorable! I love Accuquilt too!
Very cool place mats. Enjoy your day! :-) :-) angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom
Pretty place mats. Will look very pretty with white plates.
What a great way to use those flowers, I love the placemats. Just awesome.
What an inventive interpretation of that old pattern! Your table is going to be SEW inviting adorned with your new placemats. Enjoy!
That's such a great idea and it turned out beautifully.
What fun!!! That Go cutter is so awesome!
I love your placemat. The prints you've used and the black stitching give a very nice painterly effect :)
What fun placemats! I love that black free motion stitching and I always go around a few times, too, when I do it for exactly the same reason. It's like it erases the wobbles, lol :)
WoW, 1977 eh... Rotary Cutters weren't even known to quilters yet during that era... but then neither was the Go Cutter... :) A cute project tho, I'd have never thought to do those placemats that way and they are just fun and frivolous.. I love how you did the quilting also and makes me want a longarm now that I realize you could do smaller projects on it. :)
Hi Nancy, those are really cute placemats. What a great idea.
Post a Comment