Placemat or table centrepiece

We were really excited to be making this placemat, again not because we needed one, just because we liked them! We'd already decided that it wouldn't be a placemat but more of a centrepiece for the table. When you read the instructions it seemed quite easy to make and should only take 2 hours from start to finish.

We'd carefully chosen our fabrics with a little help from our favourite material shop, Paulines Patchwork. MIne is the burgundy one and my friend's is blue/green. We learnt that if you place the materials on top of each other, the rotary cutter will easily power it's way through the lot. We had four materials on top of each other and it sliced through it like a hot knife through butter! I have read somewhere that it can do at least nine materials.....and we already know it can do fingers too!

The pattern from the book Quilting in No Time, gives a 1cm seam allowance on all it's templates. Normally i sew with the edge of the machine foot to the edge of the material but that only gives you about a 6mm seam allowance. So we invested in a magnetic seam guide that attaches itself to metal plate, Yes the metal plate already has graduations on it that are marked in metric and imperial but I found it very hard to keep the edge of the material on the right mark! This seam guide made it miles easier and once attached, it is very firmly stuck so there is no fear of it moving position. Already it has earnt it's place in my sewing life and at just £3, it is definitely £3 well spent.

As we were making these, we had a few problems. Firstly, the size that was given for the back piece that would have interfacing on, was very conservative! We should have waited until we'd completed the quilted front before we cut out the back. But because the book gave exact measurements for it, we'd cut it out and added the interfacing before we even started sewing. We thought we were being organised but it actually created problems later when the quilted panel didn't quite fit on the back panel! We also cut out the centre circles to the exact size given in the book. As it turned out, the circles were slightly too small and barely covered the centre hole in the quilted panel! In hindsight, we should have measured our 'holes' before we cut the circles out. We also think if we made any more, we'd add the centre circle to the quilted panel BEFORE adding the back piece. I think coz we are novices at sewing, we follow the pattern to the letter, even when we don't think it's quite right. We need to trust ourselves a bit more me thinks!