Caitlin and her Placemat

Last Saturday night I received a phone call from my 5 year old niece Caitlin. She called and said "Aunt Ning, can you please make me a placemat?". I asked her why she needed a placemat and she responded "because it will help me keep all my crumbs off the table." With that I was on a mission. I gathered up a pile of our kid bright fat quarters, and brought them with me to Long Island for the weekend. Then on Sunday, Caitlin came over and we scoured through all the brights I brought, choosing 6 for a placemat for her, 6 for one for her middle brother Liam, 3, and another six for her baby brother Jack 18months. Caitlin also specified a fat quarter she liked the most for the back, depicting sleeping puppies and kitties on clouds.

We then cut the fats down to charms using our eternally handy June Taylor Shape Cut Ruler. And layed out 12 for each placemat. Using Lisa's instructions for the "Country Charms" place mat below, we constructed the top of the placemats.

Next we laid the completed top out and ironed all the seams. We then spray basted the batting to the wrong side of the top. We use and love 505 Spray.

Once they were secure we laid the backing fabric on top of the top fabric this time right sides together and sewed a seam using a 1/4" seam allowance almost all the way around the placemat, we left a small (maybe 6") space so we could turn it inside out. Then hand top stitched the opening together. We quilted these quickly in the ditch and were very surprised at how much we loved the result! And as you can see from the pic above, Caitlin is pretty happy with her placemat too!

Here are close up pics of all three place mats:

Liam's Placemat (BOY PLACEMAT)

Jack's Placemat (BABY or UNISEX)

Caitlin's Placemat (GIRL PLACEMAT)

This project was lots of fun and quick and easy to sew up. We were done with these placemats in less then a hour, and my sister tells me all three kids are really enjoying them. I'm sure the little one's in your life would enjoy one too!

-Ingrid