I hope all is well with you, wherever you are in the world, in these extraordinary times.
The beautiful weather has continued here in the UK, only breaking yesterday with some rain and cooler temperatures I have spent much of my time in the garden, pottering, planting, keeping on top of tidying bulbs and perennials as they come and go, and making sure to take time to enjoy just sitting in the garden. We have eaten many meals outside and drunk lots of pots of tea!
I'm not really great at sitting doing nothing so I decided to use the time in the outdoors, in the daylight, to finish hand stitching the set of placemats I started months ago. I had actually finished four, but you may remember the project grew and grew and I found myself making ten! If I am making a quilted project that is going to be seen from both sides I like to hand stitch the binding down on the back, rather than machine stitch it, which I often do for a wallhanging quilt. You may also remember that I loathe and detest hand sewing! Consequently I had parked the remaining six placemats, with bindings full of pins, like so many Very Cross Hedgehogs, for 'another day'. That day - many days in fact - arrived and lots of tiny stitches later I have a full set of placemats. Here they are...
I am so pleased with them! The fabrics are all from the 'Hedgerow' range, by Lewis and Irene, and the embroidery patterns are by Anita Goodesign.
I used the Quilt as you Go method to make the blocks, with an 80/20 wadding (batting) and then quilted them with a layer of heat resistant 'Insul-Brite', purchased from the good people at Empress Mills, Lancashire.
I make things to be used, so these are in use every single day, and I try to be philosophical about the odd gravy or sauce spot, but I am glad my family are being extra specially careful with them so far!
All good wishes,
Donna x
It's lovely to see your placemats. The embroidery and the fabrics you've chosen go so well together. I know that you really embroidered the birds, because you've told us before, but I can hardly believe it when I see it. They look so perfect! For me, this post also raises some question marks. What is 80/20 batting? (synthetic? cotton?) And how do the quilt-as-you-go method and the subsequent quilting with insul-brite combine? Aren't the blocks already quilted?
ReplyDeleteHello Marijke, So sorry for the slow reply - I had somehow missed your comment! The 80/20 batting is 80% cotton and 20% synthetic. I like it as it works really well with the machine embroidery, is super soft, and light enough if I want to add an extra layer after doing the Quilt as you Go. To add the insulbrite (or another layer of the 80/20) I treat the joined Quilt as you Go quilt top as if it didn't have batting in it already and make up a quilt sandwich in the usual way. The resultant quilt is heavier than normal, but I quite like this for wallhangings, or adult bed quilts. Using the insul-brite made the placemats quite thick but we usually use them directly on the oak dining table so I think it helps protect the wood finish. For a child's quilt I wouldn't add the extra layer of batting as I think it would make it too heavy!
DeleteThank you for your lovely comments about the birds. I am pleased with how realistic they look. Embroidering them is much easier than it looks as they are digital patterns, by Anita Goodesign. Very effective though, and great fun to do!
Never mind, no hurry. Thank you for the technical info - it's interesting. I've made a few quilts in the past, when I only had access to synthetic batting. Cotton sounds so much nicer.
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