Quilted Placemats

This project started out with sunflower fabric and three coordinating fabrics.  I was initially picturing a tote bag, but then decided to pursue placemats.

After looking at some placemat images, I liked the idea of "slice and insert" for creating the strips and showing off so much of the sunflower fabric. The concept is quite easy, but the key is to keep the cut parts lined up when sewing them back together. 

I first took a 13"x17" rectangle of the sunflower print and made a cut 10" from the left. Then I inserted a 13"x2.5" strip of orange and sewed it back together. The second cut was made 4" from the bottom. I used 2.5" width again by 18" for the white strip. After inserting the white strip, I made a third cut 13.5" from the left and inserted the tan strip that was 1.5" by 13".  I really like the effect and that the strips look like they are layered. It was necessary to square up the placemat and I gave it a finished size of 13" by 17.75".

Placemat back with free motion quilting

A trip to the store did not yield a matching brown solid.  After much consideration and sale versus the ability to use a 60% off coupon, I opted for a tan solid. This worked well for the back and also the binding. I used a new to me method of bringing one inch from the back to the front and folding over and stitching.  

For quilting, I used a meandering pattern with some loops to mimic a bumble bee's flight.

After finishing the placemats, I still had enough sunflower fabric left to make a tote bag for gifting.  I used a bottomweight brown for the front (with sunflowers attached), back and handles.  I opted to do french seams and no lining.