The French Horn Theory: Engagement Placemats

Over the Christmas holiday, I was excited to learn that one of my best friends had gotten engaged! A. is one of those wonderful people who is incredibly motivated in her work life, but is also a genuinely kind person. I met her at college where we were both training to be music educators (she is now happily leading 1^st-3^rd graders in music lessons all day!). Her fiancé is also a teacher; let’s face it, everyone I know is either a musician, a teacher, or both! I am truly happy for this most recent, great development in A’s life and I know that her fiancé is a good match for her.

At the end of this week (just in time for Valentine’s Day) one of our mutual friends is throwing them an engagement party. Since they haven’t thought about creating a registry yet, I thought I’d make something small and useful for their house: matching placemats and coasters!

I used a heart-print for the backing, and a music-print for the center rectangle in the placemats with blue fabrics (since A. is a musician and likes blue), but you can use any color combinations or prints that you want! Please let me know if there are any errors, so that I can correct them. The final dimensions of the placemats are 16 in. x 12.5 in. Happy Sewing!

Materials:

All batting and fabrics are cotton. Do not use polyester materials, as they may melt with exposure to hot dishes!!!

Dark Blue: 1 fat quarter

Medium Blue: 1 fat quarter

Print: 1 fat quarter

Backing fabric: ½ yard

Cotton Batting: at least 40” square (I used scraps from an earlier project)

Quilter’s Thread: 1 spool blue, 1 spool cream (I used 100% cotton, but you can also use a Cotton-Polyester blend.)

Binding: 1 package bias tape/ 3 yds (or make your own; instructions found here)

Cutting:

Quilted Square:

Print:

- Cut 2 rectangles of 10.5 x 7 in

Medium Blue:

- Cut 4 rectangles of 3.5 x 10.5 inches

- Cut 4 rectangles of 3.5 x 7 inches

Dark Blue:

- Cut 8 squares of 3.5 inches

Backing Fabric:

- Approximately ½ yard of fabric

Batting:

- Approximate 40 inch square

Notes:

- The amounts of fabrics listed are for making 2 placemats. You will need to use more fabric to create more placemats.

- Be sure to wash all fabrics before you begin sewing with them. Some fabrics may shrink at the first washing, while others do not. Even more problematically, the dyes used in vivid fabrics (especially reds and greens) aren’t always set when purchased, which means they may bleed on to the other fabrics giving you some strange spots on lighter fabrics.

- You’ll want to use a rotary cutter and quilting square/ruler to cut out the fabrics for accuracy.

- All seam allowances are ¼ inch unless otherwise noted.

- After sewing each seam, iron it flat, with the seam allowance pressed towards the darker colored fabric.

Assembling the Placemat:

1. With right sides facing each other, sew the 3.5 x 7 in. rectangles of medium blue fabric to the left and right sides of the print square.

2. With right sides together, sew one 3.5 in. square of dark blue fabric to each end of each 3.5 x 10.5 in. rectangle of medium blue fabric.

3. Being sure to match up the seams, sew one of the strips created in step 2 to the top, and another to the bottom of the print fabric strip created in step 1.

4. Stretch the placemat top over the batting (do not use polyester batting as it may melt with exposure to hot plates) and backing fabric and pin. Leave some extra backing and batting around the edges of the placemat top, and be sure that the wrong sides of your fabric are placed towards the batting.

5. Quilt as desired.

6. When quilting is completed, trim the excess batting and backing fabric, squaring the placemat to its finished dimensions (16 x 12.5 inches).

7. Pin and sew the binding (bias tape) to each raw edge of the placemat. (For a good explanation of sewing on bias tape as a binding, click here. I use mitered corners for a clean finish.)