Spin Placemats

I finally have a finish to share! It had started to feel like a long time since I finished anything, and then I realized that's because it has been a long time...this is my first finish this quarter. Yikes!

I made these placemats a couple of years ago. It was my first time designing anything and, even though they're fairly simple, I was so excited when I sewed the first one together and found I had all the quilt math right. I know, it's easy to make me happy.

I wanted to make another version of them and actually write the pattern this time, so I made a set of four like this.

There is one big difference, which is the size of the large pinwheel. In the original set, it was a 12" pinwheel. This time I used a fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads and a fat quarter isn't large enough to make four 12" pinwheels. So, it's 8" with a border. I quite like the new look.

I played around with the fmq on these. First, I did straight lines in the grey parts of the large pinwheels...

and this freeform pinwheel in the small ones.

I also stitched in the ditch around everything and stippled in the black border. I love how the quilting looks on the back.

Then I tried something new. I've always machine stitched my bindings to the front and then hand stitched them to the back, but I've been seeing a lot of pretty machine bindings online lately and decided to give it a go.

I started off by making a mistake right at the start. Machine bindings should be sewn onto the back first so the last side stitched (which ends up looking the neatest) is the front. Yep, I stitched mine to the front first. I could have ripped it out and started again, but I didn't. Too lazy.

Once I was finished the first side, I pinned the binding to the back all the way around. I found this worked nicely and kept things from shifting out of place. Now I see the appeal of the binding clips! On something this size I didn't find I stabbed myself very often as I stitched the binding, but I think it would be a different story with a large quilt.

Then I stitched slooooowly! That helped a lot.

It's certainly not perfect, especially around some of the corners, but all in all, I'm pleased with the machine binding. I'll be doing it again, especially for projects I want to finish quickly.

I'm still working on the pattern, but if you're interested in testing it for me, please let me know. You can leave me a comment or email me at piecefullydevoted at gmail dot com.

I'll be linking up with My Quilt Infatuation,  I Quilt, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday and YOU Made it and Love It.