real talk | lady of cardigan

I finished my Madrona Road placemats last weekend. I had been wanting to photograph them on bright green grass, but when it snowed I thought that would be even better. And then the next day, the snow was pretty much gone save a few spots here and there. So, I took them out in the sunshine and photographed them on the bits of snow that were left.

Here’s what I’ve learned about my piecing style, as it stands right now. I’m not very good at improv. It seems like it would be quick and easy – oh! let me just sew this and this together and look at there! No. I have to think it through, sketch it out, make a plan. When my quilt guild got the fabric for the Modern Quilt Guild challenge, I settled on placemats fairly quickly. Initially I thought I would do a long strips kind of piecing. And somewhere in there I just started cutting up random pieces and putting them together. And then I thought about it. And then I over thought it some more. Then I was paralyzed by “OMG, what have I done? I have no plan, I’m just making this up and I have no idea if I’m near the end.”

Last weekend I was over seeing it sitting around my sewing room. I was going to finish those placemats by Sunday and that was that. And so I did. I used what was left over of the fabric to make the binding. Came across some navy fabric – perfect for the back! For the first time I tried free motion quilting (FMQ). I’m on the fence about it. I initially tried to do a square FMQ look. But I guess I’m more naturally inclined to go loopy. And so I went with the loopy. I thought it would be a good idea to do the other three in different quilting patterns so I could test my quilting quiltiness.