Taking My Time and Making It Last

It might have still been February when I started this little sewing project. Still with scraps to use up, I began piecing together another set of place mats and a table topper. My favorite part of these projects is playing with color. 

Using up more batik fabric left overs, I decided to go easy on myself on the place mats and just do stripes of varying widths. I used a previously made place mat as a template and just laid out pieces until I got the size I wanted. Once I had the pieces sewn together I could always add another strip to each end to get the width I wanted, which I did. 

For the table topper, I decided to use up smaller pieces I had left over, using squares and rectangles, again laying them out on a template to get the size I wanted. 

Keep in mind, I did this over days, weeks even, doing just a little bit at a time, playing with color and shape. This was my creative break from gardening and exercising and reading and cooking and house keeping. 

When I finally had the tops all sewn together, I then had to find enough fabric for the backing. As you can see, they all have something different on the back, but still color coordinated. 

Fortunately I had a big enough piece of one fabric, left over from a quilt, to make all of the binding for the three mats.

Last week, I finally got back to finally finishing sewing down the bindings. Now they are finished.

I love how the color looks with the little hodgepodge bouquet I picked from the garden. 

Someone asked me before what I do with the mats I make. Do I give them away? If I were making sets of four, I might give them away, but with just enough fabric for the three pieces, I keep them and we use them. I love changing them out with the seasons, or just for fun.

I still have some fabric left over, in smaller and smaller pieces. What should I do with them? I could make more masks, I guess, but I would prefer something that takes my mind off of pandemics, something fun.

I guess I'll dig deeper into my scrap box. Maybe a quilted wall hanging is in my future, just as long as I take my time and make it last.