Hey there! I’m Jenny T with SimpleSewingProjects.Com and I’m going to show you how to make this fun Valentine’s Day quilted placemat with mitered corners.
Let’s gather the supplies you’ll need to make your quilted placemat. First, you’ll need your face fabric, the fabric that would be on top that you would see the most. And you should have a piece of fabric cut to 12 x 16—16 inches wide by 12 inches long. The second piece of fabric which could be the same, it could be something that’s completely different. You would find the contrast with the top, whatever you want, and that would be on the back side of your placemat, and leave that piece of fabric at least 2 inches wider and longer. And we’ll trim it down to the right size later after we’ve quilted everything. You’ll need a piece of binding and you want this to be the same size as your back fabric. Again, bigger than the final 12 x 16 inches.
For this project, I’m going to show you how to use double bias tape. You could find this in your craft or fabric. And what it is is when it is unfolded, it is three inches, but it is folded double which will make a nice clean bind and edge along your placemat. Now, there are other ways to bind your placemat. We’re going to use double folded binding that you can find in just about any fabric store. Any kind of craft or fabric store. So I got a light pink to go with this particular placemat with a color that works well for you. And you’ll probably need a little bit more than two yards of binding for each placemats. So keep that mind when you go to shop, each package is about three yards.
And then for the top design, you’ll want some craft felt. Really, you could use just about any fabric you want for your top design. I mean after all, this is your placemat. For the one that I’m going to make here today, I’m using craft felt and I went ahead and cut out a simple heart in white that would go on top after I’ve started assembling things. So once you have all that, you still need your sewing machine and some matching thread. For that, you want to see on the actual fabric itself. So I had a pink fabric on top, I may want to use pink thread. You could also do something contrasting. It’s the Valentine’s Day placemat so I could use red thread, pink thread, white thread. When I quilt this, you’re going to see it on top. So that’s up to you, it’s your decision. But just keep that in mind when you’re picking out your thread. Nice, new, sharp sewing needle for this because you’re going through a lot of layers and you don’t want anything to jam up on your machine. And let’s get started.
Alright. Now, we’re going to layer your cut fabric and bedding. You’re going to take care of that fabric and you’re going to lay it right side down, wrong side facing up, and take your bedding and lay that down so that it’s pretty well aligned with all side edges. And then take your face fabric, your top fabric and lay that wrong side down on the bedding until that’s fairly centered in between the side edges on top of the bedding, and right side up. Alright, so there’s a sandwich here. You have the face fabric, your bedding, and your back fabric. Once you have that, it’s smooth and lain flat, you’re going to take this to the machine and you’re going to do your first few quilting stitches, very simple stitches. You’re going to sew straight stitch down the center of your placemat and then down the horizontal center of your placemat. And then, we’re going to sew a diagonal from corner to corner, and then again on the other side from corner to corner. So it’s a very basic quilting design for this particular placemat. You are welcome to get creative with your quilting. But for anyone who is a beginner, you’re going to do simple straight lines. Down the center, across the center and then each diagonal, and then I’ll show you what to do next.
Okay. So once you’ve done your basic quilting, it’s time to add your design. And for me, it’s this cut out craft out, and I’m going to place it where I think it’s going to look best, maybe a little all center and angle. I might play with this a little bit more. And then, it’s going to be really simple because I don’t want this to be a complicated project. I want this done. I want it to look nice and then use my placemats. So I’m going to place this craft heart where I think it looks best and then I’m going to take my machine and then I’m going to sew about a quarter of an inch outside the edge of this heart all the way around to give it some quilting effect, and of course to sew it to the placemat and just to give it a little bit of design here. So really simple. You’re going to place your design here and then stitch all the way around.
Now, I have my heart stitched to the placemat and you can see that it’s pretty close to the raw edge. Put about a quarter inch in and it gives a nice quilted feeling here on the center of the heart. And now, it’s time to bind these edges so everything is finished. Just go ahead and take your scissors and trim off all these excess along your face fabric edge. Just take some scissors and just start trimming off just like this all the way around on all four edges.
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