Sunday, June 1, 2014

African Placemats

My good friend Karen spent some time in Ghana late last year, and brought home some amazing fabric. She asked me to make her some placemats with it, and offered anything left over as stash enhancement. Sold!

placemats

I made sure to wash and dry the fabric before using it. Then I pressed and refolded it selvage to selvage as it came off the bolt, and slipped some batting in between the layers, so each side was identical. Next came the quilting - a different motif on each placemat.

Square maze:
square maze quilting closeup

Stipple:
stipple placemat

Leafy vines:
placemat leafy

Loopy loops:
loopy placemat

To add a bit of contrast, I chose to bind with some Kaffe Fassett yarn dyed stripes cut on the bias to improve resistance to the frequent washing these placemats will likely experience, and I attached the binding all by machine.

All in all, a very satisfying project. Karen loves them and I had a lot of fun making them. Win/win!

6 comments:

  1. They are lovely and a nice change to try out some quilting designs.

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  2. Beautiful! I'd be afraid to eat off them (and I'm of the firm opinion that things should be used, but still...!)

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  3. Very nice! I have a stack of African fabrics too (6m...eek!) and have no idea what to do with it. It's apparently cotton/silk, much more lightweight than the fabric we're used to working with.

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  4. they look great Felicity. i like your idea of sandwiching the batting in the folded fabric - very clever!

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  5. Fabulous! Love the different designs on the same background, no fighting over whose is whose!

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  6. Very cool and what perfect quilting! I have some fabric from Tanzania I really need to find a project for...

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