make life sweet ~ sweetwater placemats

hi everyone ~

i finally had time to delve into this charming yardage i’ve had on the back burner; it’s “noteworthy” by sweetwater for moda fabrics.  and so i combined my love of writing and text onto the classic round placemat shape:

when i was teaching recently, at the local Quilt-A-Way quilt shop here in Great Falls, this book really caught my eye: “Sweetwater’s Simple Home.”  i’ve always liked their style, and i was tickled to come home with the book after a wonderful day of teaching there.

the threads i chose to put to the task at hand, are left to right: razzle dazzle {for couching}, magnifico {for quilting} and masterpiece {for bobbin thread} for both construction, quilting, and couching.

once the fabrics were layered with the batting, i loaded up the machine with the 40 wt pink-red magnifico thread {100% polyester} with white masterpiece {100% ELS cotton} in the bobbin.  i lowered my top tension from a 4.0 to a 2.5. i could have used matching red thread for the bobbin, but i chose not to because i wanted it to be subtle texture from the backside.  lowering the tension also helps that balance of colors from the top to the back, and keeps the threads more in the middle of the batting and fabric quilt sandwich .  i also used my fave needle; the 90/14 titanium topstitch needle {all threads and needles by superiorthreads.com}

and i found this page in my new book to be inspiration for the quilting motif:

to start, i folded the circle in the center.  i used a pressing tool, like the one shown below but of course, your finger/nail works fine, too!

my reason for doing this is to have a crease to mark the center of the circle, so i could get a pleasing placement for the writing lines, and hopefully eliminate any slanted lines/stitching.

my favorite pen, the “frixion” pen, that writes like a pen, and erases magically with the touch of an iron:

i marked 3.5″ from the top of the center line, to make my top line, and the same to go below the center line.  i just wanted three lines, fairly centered within the circle of fabric, and also, you can audition your writing if spacing is an issue you are concerned about.  and i am.  i don’t mind a bit of a slant, or whimsical altered letter, but i did really want it to be pretty much centered, but also very “light and free-styling” {if that makes any sense!}

i quilted the words first, and then a random type of “scribble” and “sketchy” straight stitching around the perimeter. {i also altered the straight stitch to a longer length so the stitching would “show off” too.

as i’ve said before on the blog, my go-to starch is right here, and i use it at these stages of quilting, too:

to make the straight lines stay flat and where they belonged, i engaged my handy-dandy dual feed on my bernina 830.  love it! {and looks like i need to clean up a few fuzzies, too!}

i also used my #37 patchwork foot, too, for the quilting around the perimeter, as it has a place for the dual feed to attach too {it’s not just for your patchwork ya know!} but you could also attach a walking foot which would work just as good:

i’m going at a pretty good clip, making sure my lines cross, and around and around… i go!

i cut bias fabric for the binding, and attached it, using my patchwork foot.  


then, i couched on the razzle dazzle thread, right into the binding seam, using the Bernina #39 foot, which also stitches the binding down at the same time it adds the beautiful thread embellishment.  {see the foot, and #39 tutorial here}

and i decided to add a heart at the bottom, too, just for fun:

the back side:

“sweet!”