New Placemats

Today was the monthly sewing/crafting meeting with one of my friends.  She has been learning free motion quilting.  Although I have no desire to do free motion quilting, I certainly don't mind picking out projects that will allow practicing to occur.  It was my turn to pick out a project and I wanted/needed new placemats.  With that in mind,  I selected the Framed Seasons quilt as you go placemats.  Here's a picture of the pattern project:

With this project we were able to practice free motion quilting (I chose to outline quilt) the center section, quilt as you go, stitching evenly, and topstitching.  This was a fairly quick project.  We started getting everything together at 9 am and by 11:30 am we had both made two placemats.  At this point, I ran out of matching thread which required a trip to JoAnn's for another spool of thread.  I also realized that I needed a new blade for my rotary cutter but unfortunately the needed size wasn't available. Here's a picture of my finished project:

This project made me realized that I definitely need more practice with topstitching.  Why does topstitching seem so difficult?  I was using the foot on my machine to help with keeping the stitches straight.  My friend was using a specialty foot for topstitching.  I'm not sure that she had an easier time of doing the topstitching.   I would love to hear your favorite tips on the topstitching technique.

The next meeting we will be making lampshades.  I have decided not to make my own lampshades but I will be helping to create the lampshades for my friend.

Happy Sewing!