Hey everyone! Today we're making a festive placemat set, and you'll learn how to cut, layer, and quilt four matching placemats that finish fast.
Here we go.
Meet the Fabric
This is the 12 Days of Christmas Ornaments Light Gray print, from Quilting Treasures.
It comes from the 12 Days of Christmas collection by Julie Lynch for QT Fabrics.
It's 100% cotton, and it's 44"/45" wide. That's our good quilting cotton width. It presses crisp, it sews easy, and it holds a nice flat edge. All three matter for a placemat.
The ground on this one is light gray. Oh my goodness, that gray does a lot of work. It makes the ornaments pop without shouting at you. The collection colors are teal, jade, and dark turquoise. Joyful red and soft aqua. Charcoal and gray to settle it down, plus little touches of lime green.
The print itself is ornaments, and the wider collection brings in holiday characters, elegant birds, florals, stripes, and stars. So your placemats feel festive up close, and still play nice with a simple runner or plain napkins.
I love an ornament print for the table. Every place setting gets a little sparkle. If I can do this, y'all can do it.
The Project: A Placemat Set
A placemat set is just what it sounds like. Four quilted mats, one for each place setting. We're making them 12 inches by 18 inches finished. That's a standard placemat size, with room for a plate, silverware, and a glass just off the corner.
Here's why this fabric suits it. Placemats are flat and front-facing, so that ornament print stays where folks can see it. Quilting cotton washes well and presses flat again. And light gray hides a little gravy spot better than bright white does.
We're not reinventing the wheel here. This is a cut, layer, quilt, and bind project. You can finish all four in a weekend, easy.
Materials
- 1 yard of this 12 Days of Christmas Ornaments Light Gray fabric for the placemat tops
- 1 yard of a coordinating fabric for the backs
- Cotton batting, enough for four pieces cut 13 inches by 19 inches
- Binding strips, 2 1/2 inches wide — about 1/2 yard total, or use leftover strips
- Matching thread, 50-weight for construction and quilting
- A size 80/12 universal needle
- Rotary cutter, ruler, and cutting mat
- Pins or clips, and an iron
Brief Steps
Step 1: Cut your pieces. From the ornament fabric, cut four rectangles 12 1/2 inches by 18 1/2 inches. Cut four backs the same size, and four batting pieces at 13 inches by 19 inches. I cut batting a touch big. I trim it later.
Step 2: Layer each placemat. Lay a back right side down. Center the batting on top. Then center the ornament top right side up. Smooth from the middle outward. Pin every 4 inches or so. Do all four assembly-line style. It goes faster.
Step 3: Quilt them simply. Set your stitch length to about 10 stitches per inch. Start with stitch in the ditch if your print gives you a line to follow, or do a gentle meander across the top. You could also echo around a few ornaments. Completely up to you. Keep the quilting fairly close together, about every 2 to 3 inches, so the layers stay put through washing. Slow down on the turns, folks. That's where a needle likes to complain.
Step 4: Trim and bind. Trim each placemat to a clean 12 1/2 inches by 18 1/2 inches before binding. Sew your binding on with a 1/4-inch seam. Miter the corners, join the ends, then fold the binding to the back and stitch it down. Just like that, one placemat done. Now do the other three.
Practical Tips From My Sewing Room
First tip: check your print direction before you cut. Ornaments have a top and a bottom. Lay all four tops the same way, so nobody at the table is looking at upside-down ornaments. I've done that. Once. I unpicked two placemats at midnight, so learn from me.
Second: make two extra if you have fabric left. Holiday guests show up, and a set of six saves the day. Super duper easy insurance.
And remember, it doesn't have to be perfect. A tiny wobble in one meander line will not show under a dinner plate. You're your own worst critic on this stuff. Take your time, it's not a race. Set the table, step back, and enjoy how cute these look.
Thanks so much for sewing along with me today, y'all. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Shop the 12 Days of Christmas Ornaments Light Gray Cotton Fabric 44"/45" Fabric Per Yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
