Fall Projects

What have I been stitching the past few days? I have been finishing up preparing for my monthly embroidery club class I teach next Monday.

I love to stitch fall and thanksgiving embroidery designs - I'm not quite sure why, but I do. Placemats and table runners can be very useful for setting a decorative table, but can be used for other purposes as well. I often will use a single placemat to set under a candle decoration or lamp on a nightstand or coffee table. Don't just limit your placemats to the kitchen or dining room - there are so many other places where they can be displayed!

Here is the green fall runner and placemat. This was pretty simple to stitch with a sold center and adding a leaf print border on both ends. The placemat mirrors the same design.

The embroidery design is stitched right in the center of the seam between the solid and print. Whenever you are embroidering over seams (which can be done with almost any fabric), be sure to press the seam open instead of pressing the seam allowances to one side. This doesn't create quite as much bulk for the machine to stitch over.

After stitching the top, I added a thin layer of cotton batting, the backing, pinned it together and stitched around the four edges, leaving a small area to turn it. Usually I layer the three like this: top, batting & backing, quilt as needed and bind the edges. But stitching and turning is a little faster, although I prefer to add a binding. To close the unstitched area, I did a very hard task - stick a little strip of stitch witchery between the layers and fuse it shut! Works great!! :)