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How to Quilt the Quilting Rockstar Placemat Panels

HollyAnne Knight

Placemats are the perfect “first FMQ” project— they’re small to maneuver under the machine, quick to quilt up, and you can hide imperfections under the plate and cutlery if you wish. The Quilting Rockstar Panel collection with Paintbrush Studio fabrics has four different placemats, so let’s peek at a few ideas for how to quilt them.

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As I mentioned, I think placemats are an ideal project when you’re first learning to free motion quilt. Placemats get a lot of use and washing and they’re often half covered with plates and cutlery, so they’re a very low-pressure situation to begin with. The Quilting Rockstar Placemat Panels are even more ideal because

  1. You can start out quilting them as individuals just to practice motifs

  2. Then, you can quilt the whole panel as a single piece to practice moving a quilt sized project under the machine

  3. And you don’t have to piece them, so you don’t have to feel anxious about “ruining” something that took a lot of time to put together.

Convinced? Let’s look at how to quilt these fun placemats!

Video

Quilting Plans

These Quilting Rockstar placemats feature a classic sawtooth star and piano key edge. They’re a perfect opportunity to practice both border motifs and filler designs of all skill levels

Notice that all of these plans demonstrate relatively dense quilting. You could quilt placemats with much looser designs, of course, but I also think they’re a fun chance to practice more details than you might normally commit to on a bigger project. Notice, too, that you could do a different quilting plan for each placemat but they would still coordinate well on the table. Finally, consider playing with contrasting thread. Again, these are small projects, so if you don’t love a motif or thread color in the end, you don’t have to feel some type of way about “losing” all the time and effort on a bigger quilt. Give yourself permission to play!

Resources

I can’t wait to see how you quilt some smaller projects like placemats! They’re so good for practicing, are wonderful ways to add a handmade touch to your home, and make fabulous gifts!