Putting it All on the Table

There's nothing like "company's coming," to get me motivated to take care of details that I've meant to do anyway, but put off for too long. A couple weeks ago I expected a houseguest for several nights. Sadly, she wasn't able to make it, but I'm ready for the next time!

Place mats. Have you made them? It seems a lot of bloggers are offering place mat tutorials. They're nice place mats. Pretty. But not designed for a round table! I've tried using rectangle place mats on our round, drop-leaf table and didn't like them. And I certainly couldn't serve my guests on a bare wood table! What to do? Design my own of course!

From a piece of freezer paper, I made a place mat template that matched the curve of the table. The place mat measures approximately 14" X 16". I figure I needed one yard each of two fabrics for the front and back of four place mats.

In my never-ending endeavor to reduce my stash, it seemed best to make some fabric from my scraps. This is what I unearthed as I was looking for the dark reds, burgundies - "wine-colored fabrics" sounds better - to coordinate with our burgundy-colored stoneware.

After several hours of sewing, this is the piece of fabric I made. It has a smattering of golds and greens too.

The place mats that would be sewn primarily from Kona Snow solid, so with my newly-created fabric I cut a decorative insert - a trim. Using a freezer paper insert pattern piece (3"-wide), I pressed it to the fabric and rotary cut.

I cut apart the place mat template and used the two pieces to cut two pieces from Kona Snow. I pinned and sewed the fabric insert to the Kona pieces. A gentle curve like this isn't difficult to sew.

Thermore batting is inside each place mat. I chose Thermore because it's very thin. For something like these place mats, it's the best batting to use so drinking glasses and wine glasses have a stable base.

When the first place mat passed my approval, I made three more. Most often, this is what our table will look like.

The place mat backs are just as serviceable as the fronts. Perhaps more so because they'll hide someone's sloppy dribbles!

The place mats can be rotated and still look nice. A few lines of staggered curved quilting is all that was needed to hold it all together.

I think these make a pretty table setting in our kitchen eating area.

What's for dinner?

Linda