Christmas Placemats, Napkins and Table Runner

I made placemats and napkins for my cousin and her spouse.  The napkins were made following this tutorial by Donna Jordan from Jordan Fabrics.  You can see stitching lines on the opened napkin which gives you guidelines on how to fold the napkins.

I made some Christmas Tree blocks and partial blocks following this tutorial by Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet and turned them into coordinating placemats.

I also made a placemat for my father who is 92 with some fabric showing vintage toys and decorations.

I also made this table runner based on a quilt pattern again by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet called Bringing Home the Christmas Tree which can be found in her Vintage Christmas Book.  This picture taken without flash shows the true colours of the runner better.  When I was little, we had a red station wagon, without the wings, but this reminded me of it so I had to make it.

This picture with flash shows the texture of the quilting much better - snowflakes, of course!

This picture shows the runner and a few other Christmas projects from previous years.  I'll blog about the bag in a future post.

Sorry about the dullness of most of these pictures, but we were having rather dull rainy weather when the pictures were taken.

Fruit & Veg Fabric - Table Runner, Lunch Bag & Napkins

I came across a new to me blog called Spring Leaf Studios by Anne and specifically this blog post  where she sewed with all fruit and veg fabric.  I loved everything she made, you have to go check it out!  I made a table runner several years ago (before my blog) with fruit and veg fabric even though my friend Marilyn teased me for being too literal, you know, a runner for the table where you eat made out of what you eat...but I really like it and use it on my kitchen island most of the year.

I also made a lunch bag out of food fabric as well as a herbal text fabric which I really love but don't use much since I retired... (also made before my blog)

I had been thinking recently of making cloth fruit and veg napkins to reduce the use of paper napkins although at least they do get composted in our area.  I found a tutorial which showed how to make napkins with mitred corners, but could not find it again to include the link here.  I cut 15" squares of fabric because I was working with fat quarters which had pieces of fabric already cut from them so that was the largest square I was able to make.  You could choose a square anywhere from 15" to 20".  I ironed up a 3/8" hem on all four sides.  (You could use a wider hem on a larger napkin.)

I then folded the napkin on the diagonal and sewed at a right angle to the diagonal fold where the diagonal fold and the ironed up hem met.  Trim off the excess fabric.  Do this to both corners and then fold on the opposite diagonal and repeat.

Next, turn your mitred corners inside out, use a pointy tool if necessary, and iron down the now double folded hem.

Sew as close to the inside edge of the hem as you can pivoting with your needle down in the mitre at each corner.  This picture shows two corners, one from the back where I sewed and the other what the stitching looks like from the front.

Here are the seven napkins I was able to make with the fruit and veg fabric I had on hand.

And here are the table runner and napkins together on my kitchen island.

I will be keeping my eye out for some more fruit and veg fabric in yellows and greens so I can make at least five more napkins to give me a nice dozen.  And then I will also have enough left over fabric that I could make a table topper similar to Anne's fresh tossed!  (see 2nd link at the top of the post)