Sewing for fun is, well, fun!

pieced tulips on my vintage Singer 201

Tomorrow the Forgotten Rooms QAL starts and I could not be more excited to start sewing with everyone. The 1st email goes out on August 10th but it’s not too late to sign up. The QAL is just starting and the mansion doors will remain open until Halloween night.

I have been busy preparing for the past few months and all my sewing has been QAL related, so it was nice to have a reason to make something different. My reason? A gift was needed for a dear friend’s birthday. I had so much fun designing a quick tulip block and turning them into adorable quilted placemats. Creating this small project was relaxing and fun! I did it all in 2 days from design, piecing, quilting and gifting (anyone else work best with a tight deadline?)

It reminded me why I quilt and why I design. While the QAL will be such a fun event, it is work. Taking a little time away to have “fun” sewing brought me joy and I think you can see that in the placemats. I loved using the bright fabric from Sherry and Chelsea and even tried one of the binding techniques I learned in the Binding workshop, using rick rack. I used a different binding on each placement which was nice as I used some left over binding from previous projects. I also custom quilted each placemat. Have you tried fee motion quilting? it is such fun, like doodling with thread.

I am thinking about writing this project up as a pattern. Let me know if that’s something you would be interested in seeing. Holiday season will be approaching soon and I may have more placemats in my future.

Tulip placemats given as a gift.