Friday 9 May 2014

Nine orphan blocks

One of the UFO pictures is of 9 machine embroidery blocks that I felt could only be made into a cushion or bag, neither of which I need, so what to do with them?
I then had a 'light bulb' moment and thought maybe I could use some new table mats, I have lots of the heat resistant wadding and an idea was born.

At the same time as this idea came to me I had been shown a different way of attaching a binding without any hand sewing, so I would practise this new [to me] method on my table mats.

Binding Method: Cut strips of white fabric 1 3/4 inch wide, and red fabric 1 1/2 inch wide. Join them into a long strip and press the 1/4 inch seam towards the red fabric. Fold in half and press.
Attach the binding to the back of the place mats bring to the front and machine where the white meets the red... brilliant it worked a treat.

To make the mats more versatile I used Christmas fabric on the backs. I still have three blocks and may make another three and turn them into coasters if I can find the EM pattern I used.
Six place mats finished

Reverse ready for Christmas!

Original orphan blocks

Binding method



4 comments:

Christa said...

Cool project. The binding is very interesting. Is the finishing = joining ending to beginning the same as with regular binding?

Happy Room Diana said...

Yes Christa, I just overlap my two end by 1/2" and cut away excess, then sew the 1/4" seam to join two ends togetehr.

Christa said...

Got to try it. So cool. As soon as I gave "5 minutes". Thanks for sharing.

FinoFiend said...

I've been wanting to play around with some interesting bindings and this is one I've been looking at trying. Thanks for the inspiration, Diana!

  Diana's funeral has now been arranged with Hollowells Funeral Directors. If anyone on this blog is interested in attending please go t...