Crafty Cravings Placemat

Crafty Cravings Placemat

Cook up creative placemats for your kitchen to celebrate your passion for crafting! Combine your favorite crafty collectible designs and colorful fabrics to make this mouth-watering placemat -- perfect for any season.

Read below for these free project instructions and get started today!

July's crafty cravings placemat is the seventh installment of the Placemat of the Month series. Check back the first Wednesday of each month and you'll find a new placemat project, absolutely free for your use! Each project will demonstrate how to combine your love of embroidery with classic quilting methods.

Have you missed an installment? Links are below! January - Snowball Block Placemat February - Lots of Love Placemat March - Patchwork Placemat & Patchwork Table Runner April - Spring Pinwheel Placemat May - Sunflower Fiesta Placemat June - Summertime Trapunto Placemat & Summertime Trapunto Table Runner August - Puppy Love Placemat September - Autumn Abundance Placemat & Autumn Abundance Table Runner October - Taste of Asia Placemat November - Give Thanks Pocket Placemat December - Rudolph's Run Placemat & Rudolph's Run Table Runner

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Supplies Needed:

**1/2 yard solid-colored quilter's cotton (for front and back)

**1/4 yard fabric (for placemat borders - we used corduroy) **Small pieces of fabric (for front panels - we used flannel, lightweight canvas, and print quilter's cotton)

**Batting or extra-loft batting

**Medium-weight or lightweight cutaway stabilizer (we used Floriani No-Show Mesh)

**Double stick fusible web

**Temporary spray adhesive

**Air-erase pen (or other marking tool)

**Straight edge

**Quilting cutting mat

**Rotary cutter

**Nylon monofilament thread

**5 inch diameter plastic lid or container (for measuring)

**Needle and thread for some hand sewing

**Decorative buttons (optional)

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Designs used: Button-Down Daisy Trio (Add Buttons) - Large Cup o' Crafty - Small Stitchin' Swallow - Small These designs are also available in other sizes: Button-Down Daisy Trio (Add Buttons) - Small Button-Down Daisy Trio - Large, Small Cup o' Crafty - Large Stitchin' Swallow - Large Finished Size: 18 1/2 inches wide by 12 3/4 inches high

To begin, prepare the front fabric by cutting a piece of quilter's cotton 17 1/2 inches wide by 11 1/2 inches high.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Next, create a paper templates of the designs by printing them at full size using embroidery software. If you don't have embroidery software, you can cut a piece of paper the shape and dimensions of the design to help with placement and centering. If you'd like a recommendation for an embroidery program that can make templates, consider Embird from www.Embird.com. Arrange the templates on the fabric how you want them. Leave at least two inches between the edges of the designs and the outer edges of the fabric.

Now, we'll prepare the fabric for the embroidered front panels. Cut a piece of fabric (we are using flannel and lightweight canvas) a bit larger than your hoop. Spray a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive and smooth the fabric on top. Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together, load the design, attach the hoop to the machine, and begin embroidering.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Repeat this process for each design. When all the designs have finished, trim the front panels.

On the wrong side of the far left design, measure and mark 3/4 inches out around the outer edges of the design. Draw lines at the marks to create a rectangle shape around the design and cut out the shape.

To prepare the borders for the far left panel, measure the height of the panel (ours measures 7 3/4 inches high). This measurement will be the height of the side border fabric pieces. So, we cut two pieces of print quilter's cotton 1 inch wide by 7 3/4 inches high.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Align the pieces along the side edges of the panel with right sides facing. Pin in place and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned edges.

Press the back seams open with an iron. Then, measure the width of the panel including the side borders you just added (ours measures 7 1/4 inches wide). This measurement will be the width of the top and bottom border fabric pieces -- so we cut two pieces of print quilter's cotton 7 1/4 inches wide by 1 inch high. Align the pieces along the top and bottom edges of the panel with right sides facing. Pin in place and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned edges. Then, press the back seams open.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

To trim the embroidered center panel, trace a 5 inch diameter container around the design on the back of the embroidery (place the container or lid over the design leaving equal distances from the edges of the container and the outer edges of the design).

Cut out the shape.

For the far right design, on the back of the embroidery, measure and mark 1/2 inch out around the outer edges of the design. Draw lines at the marks to create a rectangle shape around the design. Then, cut out the shape.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Next, we cut two pieces of print quilter's cotton 3 inches by 3 inches, to create two more front panels.

Add the fusible web on the back of each of the panels and arrange them on the front fabric how you want them - we overlapped some of the panels just a bit.

Starting with first layer of panels, pin them in place and then press in place with an iron (follow the fusible web manufacturer's instructions).

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Sew a decorative stitch around the entire outer edges of the panels - we used a blanket stitch and a zig-zag stitch.

Add the remaining panels, iron them in place, and sew a decorative stitch around the entire outer edges of the panels, just as you did with the first layer of panels.

To prepare the fabric for the side borders, cut two pieces of fabric (we used corduroy) 2 inches wide by 11 1/2 inches high. Align the side pieces with the side edges of the assembled front panel with right sides facing. Pin in place and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned edges. Then, press the seams.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

To prepare the fabric for the top and bottom borders, cut two pieces of fabric 19 1/2 inches wide by 2 inches high. Align the top and bottom pieces with the top and bottom edges of the assembled front panel. With, right sides together, pin, and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned edges. Press the seams.

To prepare the fabric for the back of the placemat, lay the assembled front panel on top of the fabric, pin in place, and cut out the shape. Also, cut a piece of the batting just as you did for the back. Then, lay the batting flat and align the back fabric on top with the right side facing up. Align the front panel on top of the back fabric with the right sides together (wrong side of the front panel faces up). Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the top, bottom, and one side edge - leave the other side edge open for turning.

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Turn the placemat right side out between the front and back panels (the batting will end up inside the placemat), and press the seams. Also, turn the fabric of the opening in 1/4 inch and press.

Hand-sew the opening closed by hand stitching with needle and thread. With nylon monofilament in the needle and matching thread in the bobbin (thread that matches the back fabric) quilt through all the layers by stitching along the existing seams of the front panel.

As a finishing touch, we added buttons to the center of the flowers in the far left panel. Get creative and add some of your favorite crafty decorations!

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Crafty Cravings Placemat

Your placemat is now complete. Stitch a set for yourself and another for a fellow crafter!

Click here for a printable version of these project instructions.

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