May Friday Night With Friends #2

I decided to get an early start on my Friday Night With Friends and spent the afternoon ripping apart my failed placemats from a couple weeks ago. It took me a couple of hours, but I managed to trim down the pieces and reassemble the placemats and make them right.

The quilting portion has been a bit of a learning process for me. Up until now, I have only ever done stitch-in-the-ditch, but the center of these placemats was too large a space to leave unquilted. I thought about how to finish it and I didn't have any interest in freehanding some design. Eventually, I decided to fill the opening with a Double Infinity outline. I downloaded a drawing from the internet then printed out six copies that were sized to fit in the opening.

I carefully sewed around the edges then spent about 15 minutes trying to remove the paper. Obviously, it would have been better if I used some sort of tear-away stabilizer, but I didn't have any so I just used regular printer paper. I found if I folded the paper along the perforation, it seemed to tear off more easily. There are still a few scraps of paper stuck in the stitching but I'm sure they'll disappear when I wash these after I'm finished.

After I finished sewing the center medallion, I went through and sewed stitch-in-the-ditch around the knotwork.

I spent a good part of Saturday continuing work on this project and I've finished sewing two of the placemats, but I still have four more to finish. And I still have to put on the binding.

I used a William Morris fabric for the backing.