In real life I LOVE TO ENTERTAIN!

And I have several small dinners and parties every year. Well, I did when I lived in Homosassa. And prior to that when I lived in Katy, Texas, and before that, Tampa.

Now I get regular texts, phone calls, and emails from my girlfriends…..we miss cookie day, Galentines day, chick meetings…..

And I tell them, you can do these without me!

But they don’t.

So sad for them. Not really. Hey peeps, take up the slack! You can have parties without me!

And all of that has nothing to do with placemats other than I really like to have a pretty table. Not just for a dinner party. But for every meal. I love placemats and cloth napkins.

And matching potholders!

These placemats are made with “Woodland Wonder” by Gingiber for Moda. Obviously the same fabric I used for the potholders I posted about last week.

I wanted to make these like mini quilts and bind them but I didn’t have enough of the binding fabric because I used a lot of it for the potholders. Bad planning on my part!

But I was able to get six placements and fussy cut them to have the pattern centered on the front.

How did I make them? The easy peasy way. I cut out 12 pieces of fabric 16 1/2” by 11 1/2”. Glued batting on the wrong side of six pieces. Then pinned two of the fabrics (one with batting and one without) right sides together. Stitched around all the sides with a 1/4” seam allowance—leaving about 4” open for turning.

Turned right side out, pressed, and quilted on a 45 degree diagonal. I top stitched around all the edges after I quilted it. (I do it last because I think it holds the ends of the quilting thread down!)

I didn’t have enough fabric to make the backs all the same but they do coordinate! And I made the table runner the same way but I forgot to write down the dimensions. Whoops!

Time for a dinner party!

How about those bright dishes! I’ve always bought cream or white plates. I am SO stepping out of my neutral zone!

And I had a little more fabric from a different line of Gingiber to make six more placemats. Next week—placemats with a pretty binding.