The placemats that never were

* I am linking up to the Fall Quilt Festival 2014, hosted by the fabulous Amy Ellis in the Throw Quilt category. You should check it out. They all are fabulous quilts by very talented people! Oh, and the winner of each category wins some really neat stuff. hint hint hint *

My Mother-in-law is a very special woman to me. We get a along great and she’s a very good friend!   I know that not many people can say that about their Mother-in-laws, so I am very, very grateful. Since we have a good relationship, I wanted to make her something that showed how special she is.

It was 2 years ago when I had the fabulous idea to embroider placemats for each member of the family because she loves linen and “real” stuff at the table. When I was working on the 2nd motif, it occurred to me that this is quite stupid. I’m spending all this time embroidering this stuff only to get food spilled on it and ruin it. And so the placemat idea went out the window and a quilt idea walked in the door. I had already chosen what I was going to do with the placemats, so it wasn’t hard to transform those ideas into a quilt top.

Each person in our family has a 10” x 10" square with a design embroidered on it that I think represents that person (they are not, however, all inclusive. Everyone has so many things they enjoy that there is no way I could embroider that much stuff into 1 tiny square!!). It took me a year to get everything done. I didn’t work on it all the time, which is why it took a year. I had first wanted to give it to her for Thanksgiving. Then it got moved to Christmas. Once Christmas came and went, it was going to be done for Mother’s Day. Then her birthday…. Was I never going to get finished with this thing?! Last September I made up my mind to have it done for Christmas (for real!). By the end of October I was finishing up the last block (I was happy that I had taken so long, though. For by this time I was pregnant and I could add Samuel’s block in, too).

The sashing was my first attempt at feathers. My first go-round was not pretty. I was done with almost half of it and didn’t like how they looked. So I ripped them out and started over. These are much nicer! I quilted simple flowers in the setting squares and a gently meander around each embroidered design.

Malachi enjoys LEGOS and Adam loves the Bible and enjoys genealogy.

Hope enjoys funky things and Isaac enjoys Super Mario Brothers.

Maacah adores horses and Don enjoys the “old time radio” programs.

I enjoy sewing (obviously!) and Teleka loves her chickens.

Chase enjoys the drums (at least he did when I embroidered his block) and Grace enjoys girly things.

Micah is an ex-Marine (that’s a USMC bulldog there) and enjoys his Harley, while Ashley loves to paint Henna.

Jessilee is young and flowers is what I came up with. The same for Caleb.

Nathaniel really enjoys tractors and all things farming, while Michelle loves to paint and garden.

Mason has a race car themed room, so that was a no brainer. Damaris is another young one, so lady bugs is what she got.

Benjamin loves the Lord (he’s a youth pastor) and loves speed (that’s a motorcycle with flames coming out the back). Jonah loves to hunt and is all boy..

I made a special trip 1 1/2 hour south of us to visit a Joann fabric store to find the material I needed for the sashing, setting squares, borders, and the back, I was quite happy with what I found, for the backing material fits her perfectly!

I can’t forget Samuel! I was quite pleased with how this block lined up with the top. It was really hard to keep Samuel a secret, but I wanted it to be a surprise. When I turned the quilt around, so she could see the back, ….well, her reaction was so worth the wait!

The binding is the same material as the backing, done a la Stitched in Color. 

I’m glad the placemats never came to be. Or, at least, they are in a different form. I think my Mother-in-law is too.