Something different

Inspired by a thread on Stitcher's Guild and the major shrinkage of my bargello place mats and the need for my table to look nice for home showings and a 50% off coupon at JoAnnn's and a new sewing foot (yes, it was truly a perfect storm) I decided I needed new place mats. I really want to make another bargello set, but that took a lot of time that I just don't have. So I vastly simplified and bought 2 coordinating quilting fabrics, some flannel and whipped up a new set. I will say that I could have whipped them faster if I had (1) created one large piece of fabric, quilted that and then cut apart into separate mats and (2) not gotten stupid about the binding and made it too wide and then made it work (yes, Tim would have been proud of me, but Michael Korrs would have called it a home sewn mess - he'd be right).

BUT I did learn to free-motion quilt. And let me say that it was a total blast. Like coloring outside the lines. Like sidewalk chalk on a summer day. Like finger painting. Like.. well, you get the idea. I thought it mattered how careful you were and that you made all those scribbles nice and neat and spaced apart, blah, blah, blah. Nope, none of that mattered at all. I put on my new springy foot, played just a bit with a scrape of the flannel and then went to town. It was harder on my hands than I thought it would be and I was using very small pieces of fabric (maybe should look into quilting gloves for a larger project?), but it was fun, fun, fun. I think it turned out just fine and dandy - and much better than my binding. And can you believe I had the perfect thread in my basket? Huhn.