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Friday, February 7, 2020

Orphan Block Table Mat

I made a table mat from some orphaned blocks. This was one of my OMG projects for this month.


These blocks were from the Temecula Quilt Company blog - 1880 Sample Sew Along, from 2018. They are 4" finished blocks.

Here is what I did-


I added  triangles, sashing and corner blocks to the 5 blocks:- sashing - cut 12 - 1+1/2"x4+1/2" rectangles; corner blocks - 4 - 1+1/2" squares; triangles 2 - 4+7/8" squares cut once on the diagonal (4 triangles).

All stitched together.


For the border I cut 3" strips.


Sewed them on opposite sides first, and trimmed them.


Then added more strips to the other sides. Trimmed across the corners with the ruler parallel to the triangle edge.

I chose a wide border because I wanted space for quilting.


Before quilting the border I added the binding so that I would be able to fill the space in the border with quilting. I marked the spine of the feather border with a Hera marker.


For the free motion quilting I used Invisafil by Wonderfil, a 100 weight thread, in the above colours. It amazes me how well this thread blends with so many different colours of fabric. I used the darkest thread for the walking foot quilting, sashing, corner blocks and triangles. The middle one for all the blocks, and the lightest for the border.
I wanted the table mat to be very flat so I used one layer of cotton batting.


The finished piece is 19". I made it for my cousin who was a round dining room table.


In the bobbin I used a beige Aurifil 50 weight thread. I used a walking foot to stitch around the blocks and border before free motion quilting. The free motion quilting designs I used were hooked feathers in the border, orange peel for the blocks, swirls in the sashing, and pebbles in the triangles.


Sewing on the binding before quilting means I can fill in the border nicely.

My son and his dog.
-30ยบ this morning, cold but sunny.
Molly's jacket barely fits her anymore.

All the best!♥︎