Colour Block Placemats and Napkins - Holiday Sew-Along

I am always inspired by Elizabeth Hartman's blog Oh  Fransson! - if you hop over  there and take a look you'll see she's come up with a fab pattern for some  patchwork napkins and quilted placemats. Over 4 weeks she will guide you through the entire process, with simple downloads to help you on the  Sew,Mama,Sew! website.....

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.....week 1 was all about choosing the colours and cutting out the  fabrics, so I decided to buy this fab selection of Christmas prints "Countdown  To Christmas", by Sweetwater for Moda,  from my local quiltshop  as I thought they would be perfect for this project....

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.....there's also a flickr pool to see what other sew-alongers have made - be prepared to be inspired!.....

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.....anyway, with my fabrics selected I was ready and waiting in anticipation for week 2 of this holiday sew-along - which was all about sewing the napkins. Last night I made a start on these.
I used the same fabric for both the front and back of the napkins, and I'll use the same fabric for backing of the placemats and the binding.....

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.....I really love these - although they might not actually get used - I would scream if somebody (for instance Mr F hehe) spilt some gravey on these ..... 

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.....then it was on to week 3 and I actually got to sew the placemats. I'm really loving this combination of fabrics. Can't wait to get them quilted! They will look great on a dining table over the festive season.....

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.....and finally the instructions for week 4 arrived, and at last I could make a start on the all-important quilting. Luckily for me this pattern suggests using lots of straight-row quilting, which I find really simple and very effective. After I'd quilted "in-the-ditch", I just used the edge of my walking foot as a guide for spacing the rows of quilting.....

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.....I've used Pellon, a polyester wadding for these placemats - not the iron-on type this time, but I have spray basted the top and bottom with 505 spray - much quicker than pin-basting! Just got to trim the edges and finally add the binding.....

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.....drum roll please - Da-da!! Oh someone will have a very jolly looking dining table on Christmas Day with these - what do you think?....

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