Home Dec Sewing

Time has gotten away from me. I can't believe I didn't even post last week! Well, it's not because I was at the pool, or reading a good book (though I often listen to audiobooks while in my sewing room). I've been sewing. Funny how knowing you're going to have company (the first week of September), gets you to sewing those home dec items you've been meaning to make. Like place mats for the kitchen table.

The design I used is a free download called "Lines in the Sand," from Alissa Haight Carlton.

While most of you will tell me I'm crazy to have made white linen place mats - my husband sure didn't hold back his opinion! - I really like how these look on the table. The table top is dark, and the table legs and chairs are white, so it goes together beautifully.

Indeed, I made six of them. Batting is Quilter's Dream Fusion - the first time I've used this fusible batting - and it worked beautifully for this project. Each place mat is straight-line quilted at 3/8" intervals with 50-weight Aurifil, and I used the pretty undulating wave decorative stitch across the horizontal orange piece. The binding is Kona "Curry." Let me tell you, those yards of binding took a while!

To counter concerns about eating spaghetti on the front side of the place mats, we always have the option of turning them over. The tropical print really works in our tropical home.

The other item on my to-do list has been to make the fourth - and last - replacement pillow for our sofa and loveseat. The furniture came with four pillows covered with a brown-beige Tommy Bahama tropical print. To liven up the furniture, I chose orange as my go-to accent color. (See place mats above!)

This design is also by Alissa Haight Carlton. Are you catching onto how much I like her designs, with all those clean lines? This Pillow Pattern is another freebie on her blog.

Again, I used white linen, and also a beige linen. The orange print is Painter's Canvas. I made two of these 20" pillow tops, for the front and back of one pillow, slightly changing the color arrangements.

These required a lot of strip sewing and pressing. Since linen is a little heavier than quilting cotton, I decided to press open seam allowances. Boy, did I ever find it handy to have a Strip Stick! 

If you're not familiar with a Strip Stick, it's a muslin-covered stick (duh), that's curved on the top, and is an aid for pressing open seam allowances.

I have the 18"-long stick, and it worked a treat for this project.

As I did with the other three 20" pillows I made, this one has an 18" zipper and fabric covered cording around the outside. I like this side the best, because of the pop of green palm fabric.

The back is more subdued.

And here are all four finished pillows together. I definitely like the newest one the best. It's such a classic design. But I'm truly happy to have all four of them finished. Yikes! This really means I made eight pillow tops!

Linda