Little Vacation Project

 What do you do when you're leaving for vacation in a few days and you need a hand sewing project to take along? Well, make placemats, of course. Sewing the binding down on a set of placemats has been a favorite vacation project for me for several years. It doesn't take much space and I do about half of the binding on a placemat each evening for some relaxation (after watching the sun set). 

Since I didn't have much time to prepare, I made the placemats as simple (but attractive) as possible. A few years ago I bought fabric (while on vacation) to make three pillowcases for an organization that was collecting them for refugees. The collection ended (I think) before I had a chance to sew them. All of the fabric was in the bin where I keep pieces for making donation projects. There was plenty for three placemats, including backing. I did sub in two pinks from my scrap drawers for more contrast on two of the placemats.

In case you are interested in the "pattern," I cut a 15 by 11 3/4 inch piece and a 15 by 3 3/4 inch piece of one fabric for the main part of the placemat and a contrasting 15 by 4 1/2 inch strip. I also cut a 20 by 16 inch backing. After piecing the front, I cut a batting just a bit larger.

I quilted each placemat with wavy lines. Meandering would have been even faster, but this is what they wanted. Threads were just what I had on hand.

After quilting I trimmed each placemat to 18 by 14 inches. I cut the bindings 2 1/2 inches wide and pieced as needed.

When I finished stitching down the bindings, I took some photos while I was still on vacation. It wasn't convenient to display them on location outside, so I just placed them here and there around our rental, which was a charming 100+ year old craftsman bungalow. (There are some creases on them from folding; I'll press them before donating.)

With some of the rocks and coral fossils we picked up on the beach

With a cute little pitcher I found in a cupboard

And my favorite--on an original radiator. Look at that lovely metal pattern!

I can't show vacation sewing without a few vacation photos, right?  We've been to this area of northern Michigan several times, so I'll share just a few of my favorite locations as well as some flowers that caught my eye.

Lake Huron

Forty Mile Point Lighthouse

A side trip to Lake Michigan (see the Mighty Mac Bridge?)

Ocqueoc Falls

Rogers City sunset with the dancing tree

My favorite flower color

Autumn coming on at our rental

This reminds me of a quilt I made

Had to include this too--a tiny barn quilt on our "neighbor's" garage

I'll be adding the placemats to my growing stack for donation to Meals on Wheels. And now I'll be back to my latest project: another improv quilt based on Laura Veenema's Modern Improv Quilting. Here's what I've been playing with.

I have a long way to go, but it's so much fun!

So there you have it--my little vacation project. I do have to say I know it's a privilege to take a vacation--even a small one--when so much is wrong in our world. It was a beautiful distraction from discouraging and even maddening news. However, we could never be completely away from reality. We found ourselves on a military training flight path with F16s flying over us four days in a row, the deafening roar drowning out the sounds of nature long after the jets were gone. (Later we heard one had crashed in a residential area on the other side of the state about 130 miles from where we stayed. The pilot baled at the last second, and as far as I know no one on the ground was injured although there were evacuations for hazardous chemicals.) It brought me back to the Cold War years, when the sound of military jets flying over terrified me. Even on vacation we were reminded of the fragility of our existence and the high cost of focusing on war exercises while money is denied to support humanity. 

In my country, we are coming up on some important elections. This is my public service announcement to my fellow citizens: Do your research carefully and vote ALL the issues and government seats all the way down to the local level. We need to vote our way out of the mess we are in, taking special care to preserve our constitution and democracy and to strengthen our commitment to improve community life and support the dignity of everyone. 

Yeah, I know, this is a quilting blog. But it's also real life. After you do your voting homework, you can get back to quilting.

I'm not linking this post to any parties this month. Parties seem to be dwindling, and my little project didn't seem to meet the criteria for the ones I usually link to. So I'm sending this out into the blogosphere hoping maybe someone will see it. I still want to document my quilting journey. If you read this and have suggestions for parties, please share with me.

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked, not officially promoting anything.)