It's day four of our Joel Dewberry Artist Trio Series with Free Spirit Fabrics. Today, we present a set of mix-and-match placemats that are fussy cut to make full use of the striking motifs of Joel's Heirloom collection. For those of you new to sewing, 'fussy cutting' is not pitching a fit in the barber chair when one side of your bangs is longer than the other. Although that is perfectly justifiable behavior. To fussy cut in sewing is to select and cut out a specific motif from a printed fabric or center your pattern piece directly over a design within your fabric that you want to feature. This is what we did to perfectly center the beautiful designs on each of our coordinated yet distinctive placemats.

The traditional Thanksgiving table usually features a tablecloth, but for our Thanksgiving Traditions Series, we think placemats are a fresh, new take on convention that will inject gorgeous colors and designs into the overall décor. By doing your mixing and matching within one collection, as we did working within the Heirloom collection, you can be confident everything will coordinate.

Our placemats also feature a dramatic line of decorative stitching across the front. We used the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 12000 with its 9mm stitch for ours, but just about every sewing machine, even the basic ones, have at least a few decorative stitches built in.

Heirloom is availabe in stores and online now. Check out the selection available from these Shopping Directory online fabric retailers:

CityCraft

Fabric.com

Fashionable Fabrics

Fat Quarter Shop

Ribbon Retreat + Fabric

Our thanks to Free Spirit Fabrics for sponsoring all of our 2011 Artist Trio Series. If you are as in-love with Joel Dewberry's Heirloom as we are, stay tuned. There's an amazing Great Giveaway coming up.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any Sewing Machine (we recommend the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 12000)
• Satin Stitch foot (optional)
• ¼ Inch Seam foot (optional)

Fabric and Other Supplies

The ingredients below are for ONE placemat. Because we were extra fussy about our fussy cutting, we opted to work with a larger piece of fabric than absolutely necessary. If you too are extra fussy, go with the ¾ yard listed below. If you are less fussy, ½ will work fine. Also take note that we recommend a home décor weight fabric for this project.

• ½ - ¾ yard of 44-45" wide fabric in a home décor or cotton sateen weight for the left front panel and the placemat back
• ½ yard of 44-45" wide fabric for main right front panel
• For our four mix-and-match placemats, we used the following cotton sateen fabric combinations from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Collection for Free Spirit Fabrics:
  Tile Flourish in Blush - left panel and back with Rose Bouquet in Garnet for the main right front panel - both from the cotton sateen Ruby palette
  Empire Weave in Blush - left panel and back with Ornate Floral in Gold for the main right front panel - both from the cotton sateen Ruby palette
  Empire Weave in Sepia - left panel and back with Ornate Floral in Sepia for the main right front panel - both from the cotton sateen Sapphire palette
  Tile Flourish in Fuchsia from the Sapphire palette - left panel and back with Blockprint Blossom in Garnet from the Ruby palette for the main right front panel - both in cotton sateen
• ½ yard of 22"+ wide lightweight fusible interfacing
• All purpose thread in color to match fabric
• Contrasting color thread for topstitching and decorative stitching; we used Coats Dual Duty in a deep garnet red
• See-through ruler
• Fabric pencil
• Iron and ironing board
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Straight pins
• Seam gauge

Getting Started

1. Use your see-through ruler and fabric pencil to draw out each of your shapes or make patterns out of tissue or pattern paper. Because I wanted to very carefully fussy cut all my pieces, I opted to use tissue paper patterns to insure I centered everything exactly where I wanted it. Also, because printed fabric is rarely 100% straight... that's just the way it is, I find it easier to fussy cut with a pattern and concentrate on keeping my design straight within the confines of the pattern even if it may look slightly askew on the fabric.
2. From the fabric for the left front panel and the back, cut the following:
   ONE 7" wide x 15" high rectangle
   ONE 21" wide x 15" high rectangle
3. From the fabric for the main right front panel cut ONE 15" x 15" square.
4. From the lightweight interfacing cut ONE 21" x 15" rectangle

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

1. Thread your machine with the thread to match the fabrics.
2. Pin the left front panel piece, right sides together, to the main right front panel along one 15" edge.
   
3. Using a ½" seam allowance, stitch the panels together.
4. Press the seam allowance open and flat.
   
5. Thread your machine with a contrasting thread.
6. Following the instruction manual, set up your machine for decorative stitching. Choose a decorative stitch that will stand out nicely against your fabric. We chose Heirloom stitch #39 on the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 12000, which is the same stitch we used on our matching napkins.
7. If you are new to decorative stitching, we have a recent helpful article on the topic.
8. Run a line of decorating topstitching along the front panel seam, using the seam itself at a center guideline.
   
9. Following manufacturer's instructions, fuse the 21" x 15" piece of of interfacing to the wrong side of the 21" x 15" placemat back panel.
   
10. Pin the fused back panel and the decorative-stitched front panel right sides together, leaving a 3 - 4"opening along the middle of one side.
    
11. Re-thread your machine with matching thread.
12. Using a ½" seam allowance, stitch around all four edges, leaving that 3 - 4"opening along the bottom edge of the placemat (along one of the long sides). Reinforce your opening by back-tacking a few stitches at the beginning and end of your seam.
13. Remember to pivot at each corner with your needle in the down position. It's also a good idea to back-tack at each corner to reinforce them and make sure they stay sharp when turned right side out.
14. Clip all four corners of the placemat on the diagonal, being careful to not cut into your seam.
15. Using the 3 - 4" opening you left in the bottom of the placemat, turn the sewn placemat right side out.
16. Push out each corner so it is sharp and square. Use a long tool with a dull point, like a knitting needle or a chopstick.
17. Tuck in the raw edges of the opening ½" so they are flush with the sewn edge.
18. Press the placemat flat around all four edges and all four corners of the placemat. It helps to gentle roll the edge of the placemat to push the seam out so the placemat layers are as flat a possible.
19. Re-thread your machine with the contrasting thread. Increase your stitch length.
20. Topstitch ¼" all around four edges of placemat. This topstitching will seal the 3 - 4" opening. I used my ¼ inch foot to keep my stitching even all the way around.
    
    NOTE: When deciding where to start/stop my topstitching, I looked for the color within the design that most closely matched the color of my topstitching thread. This is where I started as I knew the matching color would best hide where the seam joined. I also used the lock stitch function on my sewing machine rather than backstitching to secure the beginning and end of the seam. This helps keep the stitching line cleaner. If you do not have this function on your machine, you can leave the thread tails long and knot them by hand.

Contributors
Project Design: Alicia Thommas
Sample Creation: Liz Johnson

Other machines suitable for this project include the Bernina 530 and the Pfaff hobby 1142.