Last December during a visit from my sister and her kids, we were brainstorming what to give to our parents for Christmas. As we sat pondering, we realized, together we had 4 kids, ages ranging from 7-15 who could create something within that very afternoon.
We landed on the idea of making placemats to custom fit their wooden TV tables (a top-secret call to our brother who lives near them got us the table measurements).
My sister and I laugh at this. Apparently things become more relaxed after the kids move out. Growing up we sat every night at the table minding those manners Dad drilled into us. Definitely no recollection of dinner in the family room and certainly no TV!
At any rate, the idea was to make 2 placemats with 4 squares each (1 square for each grandchild).
Inspired by Fusing Fun! Fast Fearless Art Quilts and Fuse-and-Tell Journal Quilts by Laura Wasilowski, we simplified the process by fusing all the fabric first. Turns out I had fused fabric in a set palette, leftover from a Daisy quilt project. The kids were able to cut out their design, iron it on, and my sister and I sewed them up.
The kids had fun and it was interesting to see their different styles. Turns out the boys keep it simple and the girls go for the details. Can you tell who’s is who’s? Funny enough, you’d think, “yay for details”, but when it came to sewing around all the little pieces, we were booing under our breath as afternoon became evening and evening became late (you know that borderline grumpy phase where you start to make mistakes).
Look at all those petals to sew around!
On the back we fused on the title of each square and the designer’s name. All in all, they came out great and Nana & Boppa can use them on any table they choose.
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2 Comments
What a great idea – they are so fun.
That is a cute idea and something they will treasure.
Debbie