Spooky Placemats
A Tutorial for Holdiay Placemats
I LOVE to decorate for the holidays. And I really enjoy making quilty projects to use in my decorating! My husband and son love Halloween!! So, when the Spooky and Witchy collection debuted for Art Gallery Fabrics, I knew I had to make something. I have loved this collection series, this is the fourth installment. I have made something with it every year….first year some pillows, next two years a quilt, and this year I wanted to do something a little different.
I settled on a table runner and some placemats that complimented each other. I decided on the Bejeweled Table Runner from my friend Victoria of The Midlife Quilter. The pattern is free if you sign up for her newsletter! For the placemats, I wanted something that was unique, yet complimented the runner. I made the smallest version of the runner and have a table that is a little larger than 4’ x 6’, so I have plenty of room for both a center runner and placemats.
Halloween Themed Quilt Blocks
I found some super cute Halloween block patterns that came with directions for both a 6” block and a 12” block. I wanted my placemats to be 16” x 12” (a somewhat standard size), so I decided to take a little piece of the Bejeweled Table Runner and at that element to the placemats.
Any 12” quilt block will work, so it is very easy to customize these for any holiday or season. I have linked the blocks that I used below, but feel free to choose your own blocks.
Tools & Materials Needed
These requirements will allow you to make the small Bejeweled Table Runner and 4 Placemats:
16 piece Fat Quarter Bundle
1 yard background fabric
3 1/2 yards backing fabric
1 yard binding fabric
Craft size batting or batting scraps
4 - 12“ block patterns
sewing machine
4 1/2” block ruler
6 1/2” x 24 1/2” ruler
rotary cutter
cutting mat
pins
binding clips
iron
seam roller (not required, but I prefer when piecing my blocks instead of pressing every tiny seam)
Making the Placemats
I began with a fat quarter bundle of Spooky and Witchy and about a 1/2 yard of background fabric for the placemats. The table runner requires another 1/2 yard of background fabric and suggests using the remaining fat quarter fabric to create a scrappy binding; however, I used the left-over fabric (honestly there is quite a bit) to piece my 12” blocks. Follow the instructions for the block patterns that you choose. I also cut an additional 4 1/2” square from each of the 16 fat quarters to make some additional quarter square triangles, only I trimmed them to 3 1/2” this time. I sewed 4 quarter square triangles together to make a 3 1/2” x 12 1/2” strip. this will produce 4 strips, to be used in 4 placemats, with each of the 16 fabrics featured in each placemat.
I then used a 1 1/2” x 12 1/2” inch strip of background fabric to join my 12” block to my quarter square triangle strip, finishing my placemats out at 12” x 16”. Now, this step is where you can help to correct sizing if your pieced blocks didn’t come out to exactly 12 1/2” x 12 1/2” unfinished. I will be honest, I had one block that was just a little narrow, so I used a 1 3/4” x 12 1/2” strip.
I chose to quilt my placemats and then traditionally bind them to match my runner. I chose to use 2 different backing fabrics and a half yard will back 2 placemats, so 1 yard total, or a 1/2 yard of 2 fabrics. Each placemat requires 2 width of fabric strips for binding; however, I only used 6 width of fabric strips and did continuous binding that I trimmed after each placemat.
Now, I have a table runner and complimenting placemats to decorate my table for Halloween. And I actually have them done in plenty of time this year!!