And Even More Placemats

Three more placemats; another road trip. Definitely a theme for this summer, but it’s all good. I’ve been slowly using up all those Bear Paws I made back in 2020. I figure I have enough blocks to make 10 (more or less) additional placemats, so there will be more of this kind of post. 

I feel good making these blocks useful and gifting them with a purpose (Meals on Wheels). Sometimes I worry about whether the seniors receiving them will like them. I picture them as people like my grandparents or parents— from a different era than me. But with a major birthday milestone last week, I suddenly realized that I’m the same age as some, if not many, of the recipients. I may need to try to focus my designs to appeal more to my generation. I’ll keep working with what I have for now— and then it may be time to change things up a bit.

Anyway, here are this month’s placemats-fronts and backs-made with scraps (multi-colored when possible). They are all about 14 by 18 inches, sewn on my Featherweight and quilted on my Singer 115 treadle. 

I did the hand sewing on the bindings while on a week’s vacation Up North in Michigan (at the tip of the pointer finger of the Mitten State).

So how about a few vacation photos? We stayed in a cottage on Lake Huron and did our usual bike rides and hikes along the lake, and visits to a waterfall, an orchard and lighthouses—all spectacular, but the real specialty of this vacation was the sky.

Northern Lights (for only a few minutes, but thrilling)

Gorgeous sunsets (yes, you can see sunsets on the water on the sunrise coast if you look for them)

Full moon (Harvest Moon) rising, and a partial lunar eclipse (which I couldn’t capture on my phone)

Thick fog followed by a fogbow when the sun broke through. I had never seen (or heard of) one, so I had to Google it.

We also had blue sky and a bit of a stormy one.

No fabric this trip, but lots of inspiration. I did take some photos of quilts in the lighthouses. There were some sewing machines, too.

I’m linking up with Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant today and with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap on Sunday. 

Now I have to hurry and make more placemats because we have another little getaway coming up, and I’ll need another take-along binding project. 

I hope you’ve had a good quilting month, with projects big or small.

Even More Placemats

 So I guess the theme of the summer is Placemats. Not much blogging going on here. There's just been so many other things to keep me occupied. Even sewing has taken a back seat to other things. And that's okay. It's been a beautiful summer. I have found, though, that sewing placemats is the perfect activity--quick makes, not too much mess, using up scraps, and nice little take-along hand-binding. So here's what I've made during the last two months.

 Quite a variety. Let's take a closer look. 

I am still trying to use up Bear Paw blocks that I made during 2020, as well as multi-colored scraps and other scraps. I had seen a quilt on someone's post awhile back that was made with all browns and creams. I really liked it, and knew that I had a binful (not to mention a drawerful) of just those fabrics that has been lanquishing for years. I went through my Bear Paws and found three blocks that would work for some placemats. Well, here's the good thing about making placemats rather than tackling a whole quilt. I had to make myself finish these because I was quickly bored working with the color scheme. How strange, because I had really liked the quilt I had seen online. I think I would have been more interested if I had mixed some other colors in. Anyway, I used two Bear Paws for the first placemat and found mostly strips in my scrap bin. I tried to balance out values as much as I could, but didn't stress over it (too much).

For the back, I pieced strips and chunks into vertical stripes--such an easy way to "make" fabric. This is wrinkled, I see, but I will press everything before I donate them. I quilted the placemat with organic horizontal lines following block sections and seams for some of them, but not really planning anything. The binding was leftovers of fabric that I've used in landscape quilts in the past. It was kind of hard to part with, but it was time.  

I used one more Bear Paw in another placemat, and placed larger strips around it. It kind of looks planned, but I really just sewed whatever fit best according to the length of the strips I had. Some of these fabrics are from the 1980's!! I had enough of the little brown print on cream that's in the Bear Paw for the binding. 

I focused on using some of my darker brown strips on the back, alternated with some light grunge that was a cutoff of a quilt backing. This time I quilted in vertical stripes. They look better on the front. A bit wonky on the back, probably because of sort of uneven scraps. But that's the way it goes with improv piecing. 

After an overload of browns, it was time to make something a bit more colorful. I think of this one as sort of picnicky. It was fun finding strips of fabric that coordinated with the Bear Paw. Some of them look a bit mottled here, but if you zoom in, you'll see some tiny stripes. 

I made fabric for the back with leftover chunks and strips, sewing together pieces of similar widths into columns. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the blue/green diamond print fabric which first appeared in a quilt for one of my grandsons. I had just enough of the floral with the green background for the binding, Zoom in if you'd like to see how some of those prints coordinate. Meander quilting seemed the best fit for this busy design. 

In August I made another batch of three quilts, using six more Bear Paws for two of them. The first one has a fall vibe, with mostly batiks. It went together really quickly. I just put borders around the blocks and then added some strips.  

I pieced a strip with the leftovers of the front and a few other scraps and then inserted it in a cutoff from a quilt backing--not a batik, but the colors were just right. Meander quilting and an orange print binding pulled it all together. 

I focused on a red/peach/blue print fabric that I have way too many scraps of to make the next placemat. I had used it along with the peach/blue floral for a project several years ago. I mixed some solids and Grunge prints from my scrap bins to make pieced strips. 

The back is kind of wonky because of the odd pieces I had to fit together. Hopefully, whoever gets it will appreciate off-beat piecing. Quilting was meandering for this one, and a mottled blue binding finished it off. 

The final placemat was a combination of 4 Bear Paws with the same color scheme. The most challenging part was trying to balance the colors and patterns. I subcut scraps into squares and strips

and then pieced a bunch of odds and ends from my solids scraps for the back. More meandering and a dark turquoise binding finished this one up. 

All of these placemats are 18 by 14 inches. I start with a top of 19 by 15 inches and a backing of 20 by 16 inches. After quilting I trim to the final size that is recommended by my local quilt shop for a collection for Meals on Wheels. I used leftover cotton threads in neutral colors for the quilting. 

I brought the last three placemats with me on vacation last week and did the hand sewing on the binding outside our tiny log cabin while listening to the birds calling and hearing acorns drop on the roof of the cabin. 

So peaceful and relaxing, although a little squirrel scared me at one point. I don't know if it jumped out of a tree or fell off the roof. I jumped up and screamed as it came down right behind me, and so did the squirrel. I'm not sure who scared who more. Life in the woods. Before I actually did the sewing, I had to make a quick trip to the local quilt store (yes, there was one in the nearby town) because I had forgotten my thread.

The vacation was lovely. Do you want to see some other photos? Sure you do. (Indulge me; it's been so long since I've blogged.) We had dramatic skies, gorgeous water, and pearlescent sunsets. 

M

We stopped at a historical museum, and I saw lots of old sewing machines. And this quilt. 

Before we left for home, I had to return to the quilt store for some souvenir fabric. I picked up some for a possible landscape quilt (wonder where that inspiration came from) and some chocolate browns because that last placemat got me thinking about a brown, turquoise, and maybe yellow-green quilt, and I need to collect some chocolate browns, which seem hard to find these days. 

We saw several barn quilts along the way, but I was usually too slow to get photos of them. If you look closely, you can see one on this barn.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday (today), Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant (Thursday Oops, August 30), and Cynthia at Quilting is more Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap (Sunday).

I hope you are enjoying your quilt projects and maybe a vacation. I wonder: What kinds of quilt projects do you take along on trips? 

Meals on Wheels Placemats

Oh, hi there. It's been a minute. Well, a whole lot of minutes. A trip by train to Chicago for the third grade school program of one of our grandsons, a car trip to the Detroit area for a baseball game of another grandson, lots of little bike rides, planting our flowers, and a wonderful week exploring Up North in Michigan (by the little finger of the mitten)...it all adds up to a delightful spring season of non-quilting activities. That just happens naturally when the weather warms up. I did do a bit of quilting over the last month or so and finished by putting the binding on some little projects while we were on vacation.

Here's the batch of placemats I made for next year's collection for Meals on Wheels. 

The beginnings of these were two Bear Paw blocks from my endless supply made during 2020 and a rejected block from a baby quilt I made early in 2023. I added scraps from my multi-colored scrap bin, one that I'm trying to slowly empty (ha ha) as well as some other solid or solidish scraps and strips, supplemented with coordinating pieces as needed from my fabric supply. 

I thoroughly enjoy making these. I have no idea when I start of what the finish will look like, and I don't really measure or plan, but just use the sizes of the scraps to build the piece. The preferred size for the finished placemat is about 14 by 18 inches, so I try to make the tops about an inch bigger in both directions to allow for quilting shrinkage. I love how the fabrics all coordinate on this one even though they are from several decades of quiltmaking. 

Here's the back of this one--lots of memories of quilt projects. I'm pretty sure the third strip in, and maybe the pink shirting, are from the 1980's. The binding is three different fabrics that all read about the same. 

This next one was a fun way to use up some backings from rainbow colored quilts. They all seemed to have some purple in them, so I pulled that out with the flower block and some solid strips. Most of these are modern, with some digital prints as well as an Aboriginal Australian design leftover from a phone case I made. 

The back is from really narrow strings. There are several different prints, but they look sort of watercolor style, don't they? After I ran out of strips, I added some low volume scraps with purple in them. Again, the binding is three or four different purples. 

This third placemat took the longest. I had a bunch of pieced triangle block cut-offs in my multicolored bin from the quilt you see in my blog header. I decided to unsew them while watching TV so I could recombine some of them with other fabrics. Then I sewed long strips of pieces to fit around the center block. There's one wonky pieced striped fabric that was in my granddaughter's baby quilt; she's now 12-1/2 years old and just a smidge away from passing me up in height. Making scrap quilts is such a trip down memory lane. 

For the back, I made a long strip from all the scraps. They had lots of angled pieces but fit together well. Then I pieced the back jelly-roll race style without regard to how the fabrics met up. It makes for a crazy fun random design. I had to add a bit of fabric to each end to get the size. But what a sense of accomplishment to use up all those leftover pieced triangle bits. Oh, and the dark turquoise that really stands out? That was in my grandson's baby quilt 9-1/2 years ago. More memories... 

I pieced batting from scraps (had a new supply from the cut-offs of the last quilt I made). Quilting took almost no time at all with an easy meander. 

I took my time hand sewing the binding in the evenings during my vacation after watching the sunset at the beach. Sunset is late at this time of year, so there wasn't much evening left for sewing, but I was able to get all three finished over six little sessions. It was the perfect take-along project. In fact, these little placemats are the perfect summer project. There is a bit of a mess involved sorting the scraps, but I have my multi-colored scraps presorted by color and type of design so it's neater than you might think, and the sewing doesn't take up much room or time. Also, I don't have to rearrange my quilting room to do the quilting on such little quilts. I think there should be more of these ahead of me in the next couple of months. And we are due for a really hot spell, so indoor activities will be priorities. 

Before I go, some more stylish photos on my treadle cabinet. I wanted to take some outside, but the planters are just getting started and aren't much of a backdrop yet.

The framed notecard is a souvenir of our view from the beach.

Oh, and why not a few photos of inspiration on vacation? I haven't done that in awhile. First, some quilts. This one was at the Empire Historical Museum (in the town where we stayed.) There were more quilts, but this was my favorite. I just realized that I got the object card in my photo, so I hope you can read it. The blocks are approximately 3 inches square. In perfect condition, even though it is reportedly mounted in a way that might harm it over time.

Here's a close-up.

And the quilt at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Headquarters: Ann Lovelace's winning quilt from 2013 Grand Rapids Artprize. (She won again in 2015 with a different quilt--quite a feat considering Artprize is not a quilt show, but many forms of art.) It is breathtaking. 

Lots of bears in the area where we stayed and biked. (We didn't see any.) This area was destroyed by a huge storm about 9 years ago. Nature is healing itself, and it is becoming beautiful again. 

We had sunsets on five out of seven nights. Here are just a few photos. Always different. Never grows old.

This is not a real lighthouse. It was built as a memorial to a town citizen. The neat thing, though, is that it has a webcam, so we can watch the waves and the sunset from home whenever we need some beach time. We even waved to my daughter on the cam from the beach while she was at work. (I'm sure she appreciated that. Nothing like being reminded of someone else's vacation while you're working.) 

We hiked Empire Bluffs for the gorgeous view of Sleeping Bear Dunes.

These were my favorite flowers there. Inspiration for a delicately colored quilt, yes?

I took lots of photos of old buildings in town and in the national park. This was my favorite for the color inspiration. I wonder what it was/is.

Today I'm linking up with Michelle at from Bolt to Beauty for Brag About Your Beauties, and on Sunday I'll link up with Cynthia at Quilting is more Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap. 

I hope you are enjoying your quilting projects big or small and carefully planned or improv and scrappy. And any non-quilty but special activities.