Placemats for a Cause

Today Carole, at From My Carolina Home Blog, is hosting a Fall Fortnight blog hop. This one is in support of Meals on Wheels and features placemat tutorials. I was very excited to be asked to participate!

Carole is collecting placemats to donate to her local Meals on Wheels organization. Other participants are donating to their local MOW. I will be sending my placemats to Carole. I was visiting with Carole the day that Hurricane Helene hit Asheville. My Mom, my cousin and I met with Carole that morning and then immediately left town, a day early. It would have been a disaster for us had we stayed just a few more hours.

The whole area was devastated and is still suffering, 2 years later. That’s why I’ve decided to send my placemats there. You can get information on sending placemats to her on her blog.

Be sure to visit all the other blogs who are sharing autumnal placemat designs today:

Carole at From My Carolina Home – Placemat Blog Hop and Charity Project

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts – Fall Fortnight Placemat Blog Hop
Mary Ellen at Quilt Mouse – A Blog Hop with Fall Fortnight 2026
Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl – Fall Leaf Block & Placemat Tutorial
Kathy at Sewing Etc – Fall Placemats
Mary at Stitchin’ Grandma – Fall Placemat Tutorial
Kathleen McMusing – Maple Leaf Placemats
Alycia Quilts – Fall Fortnight Placemat Hop

Here’s how I made mine.

I have made well over 200 placemats and the overriding theme of them is “scraps”. I love to use project leftovers, orphan blocks and other fabric scraps in placemats. These started with the scrapiest of scraps….a collection of batik stringy bits.

These are mostly strips cut from squaring fabric edges so they aren’t even consistent widths. I started by pulling all that could remotely be considered autumnal colors: reds, pinks, oranges, yellows and browns. Then I sorted them into 3 widths: about 1″, about 1.5″ and about 2″.

Next I needed an accent fabric to tie this mish mash of colors and prints together for a fall feel.

The first personal rule is that the accent fabric needs to come from the stash, no purchases allowed. The second requirement is that it have enough yardage for the accent and binding. For this placemat that would be about 14″ WOF for 2 placemats. These are the two fabrics I had in my stash and I chose the darker one.

The next step is to cut the accent pieces.

Cut one strip each 1″, 1.5″ and 2″ and then sub-cut the strips into 1″ wide pieces. There will be more than enough accent pieces for 2 or more placemats.

Then it’s on to the backing and batting. For placemats, you can use any type of batting but I’ve found that traditional batting in placemats make them harder to use on a daily basis. When you wash the placemats they tend to wad up in the dryer and require a lot of ironing. Instead, I prefer a thinner and firmer batting and, for me, that’s flannel. I specifically use retired flannel sheets that have been washed over and over so that all the shrinkage is out of them. It’s also a great way to recycle old (clean) sheets.

For the backing, I find a fabric from my stash that I’ve had trouble using in my quilts but that still isn’t hideous.

The plaid fabric is a vintage feedsack fabric that I love but haven’t been able to incorporate in a quilt. The finished placemat size for Carole’s project is 12″ x 18″. I cut my backing and batting to 13″ x 19″ and will trim it down after the sewing is done.

Next it’s time to make a lot of strips.

From each set (1″, 1.5″ and 2″)piece the strings into longer strips with an accent piece between each fabric.

This is the 1.5″ set and you can see the width difference in the pieces. I didn’t worry about that, I just tried to keep one edge close to even.

Sewing the long strips was the longest part of this project. The best part is that now the piecing and quilting all happens at the same time. Layer the batting over the backing. You’ll do your piecing right on the batting layer and sew through all layers. Pick a bobbin thread color that looks good with your backing fabric. The top thread can almost any color.

Now it’s just a simple flip and sew I started with two piece that were relatively straight on one edge and made sure that the accent pieces weren’t lined up on top of each other. Place them right sides together, aligning two cut edges and sew a seam that’s more or less 1/4 inch. The flip the top piece up and press.

Here are the next two strips ready to pin in place and sew.

I place the new strip in place over the edge of the previous strip and I just make sure that I line it up with the NARROWEST section of the previous strip. Yes, there will be wide seam allowances in some places. It’s a placemat, it doesn’t matter!

I had made enough strips to make one horizontal and one vertical.

At this point I trimmed them to 12″ x 18″ and they are ready for binding.

Because I use flannel as the batting, the placemats are very thin so I cut the binding strips to 2 1/8″ and I cut 2 strips for each placemat. From here, just bind as you usually do. I attach my binding to the back and topstitch on the front. There’s no chance that I’d hand sew a binding to a placemat.

If you have a serger you always have the option to do a serged edge. I have done that previously with a very short stitch length and the placemats looked good and held up well.

Be sure to visit the other participants in the blog hop.

Carole at From My Carolina Home – Placemat Blog Hop and Charity Project