The older I get, the more I appreciate a perfect Fall day. And we had quite possibly the best one this past Saturday. The sun was shining, not a rainy-looking cloud in the sky, and perfect sweater-weather temps. It was poem-worthy.
So we did the most logical thing – got some friends together and went to a Sunflower Festival at this cool local farm!
Just a couple of friends, hangin’ in a sunflower field…
I think we’ll definitely be going back next year.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Fall has arrived! And maybe rather more quickly than I hoped/expected. It was 37-degrees (!) when I woke up this morning. Which practically qualifies for Winter. But, anywho… we celebrated the season’s arrival with a football-filled Sunday. We hosted a Bengals party, complete with beer cheese, Yuengling, taco soup-chili, and a specialty “Cider Cocktail” (thank you, Pinterest!).
It was a delicious Sunday 🙂
We’ve added some mums to the front porch. Once I get some new planters, pumpkins and a new wreath up on the front door, I’ll snap some pics to share!
my latest owl buddy, hanging out on top of one of my copies of Pride and Prejudice
autumn isn’t that far off! these colors stood out to me; bold, warm and the perfect palette for my purple & yellow family room / kitchen!
discovered this enormous caterpillar, plus his three BFFs, on my tomato plants this week. Google told me he’s a nuisance to gardens (i.e. eats like there’s no tomorrow), so they were promptly relocated to the woods.
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Have a lovely, long holiday weekend!
Remember the fabric sneak peek I posted a few weeks ago?
And the new placemats I recently made?
Well, I finally finished my latest yellow creations!
The two 16″ x 16″ pillows on each end are Premier Prints Chipper Slub in Corn Yellow; the two 12″ x 16″ pillows in the center are Premier Prints ZigZag Slub in yellow/white. I found both of these fabrics, plus the Premier Prints Suzani Slub in yellow/white that I used for the placemats, at Fabric.com.
And finally, the whole family together:
I love the spunky, modern cheerfulness of these prints. And I’m loving the bold statement they make in our family room!
The first plans I had for my new batch of fabric were new placemats for our kitchen table. Our current placemats are a basic navy-ish blue; they don’t really match our dishes, or anything else in our kitchen, for that matter. I thought some fun yellow-patterned placemats would be just the thing to brighten up the kitchen.
As I’ve said before, I’m not really talented when it comes to sewing – my mom is. But with all of these new ideas swirling in my head, I wanted to give it a shot. The last time I sat down to a sewing machine was probably sometime in 2001 or 2002, when I took Home Ec in high school (yes, my all-girls Catholic high school still offered Home Ec). But placemats seemed easy enough for a beginner! And my mom is a willing teacher (thanks Mom!).
My mom and I studied the fabric’s pattern (Suzani Slub in yellow/white by Premier Prints) and compared various dimensions to decide how big we wanted our placemats to be. We decided a 13″ x 17″ double-sided rectangle would be the best. The double-sided decision was to give them a bit more stability and a more finished look.
pattern-planning
making my first cut!
I was too focused on sewing straight lines to take some in-progress photos. But here are some “glamour shots” of my new, handmade placemats on my kitchen table!
a cheery table setting
loving the yellow-green-orange combo
close-up
Instructions:
– Cut 2 rectangles for each placemat, 13″ by 17″
– Arrange pairs of rectangles so patterned sides are facing each other
– *Serge one of the long sides first, then unfold into a 13″ x 34″ rectangle and serge the 34″ side
– Fold back into a 13″ x 17″ rectangle and serge the remaining short side and long (17″) side
– Sew from the corner towards the center of the open short side about 3″ and back tack. Do this for both corners. (Those short seams make it easier to form the corners when you turn the placemat right side out.)
– Turn placemats so pattern is now facing out
– Hand stitch the opening closed.
– From here, the placemats could be finished, but we decided to stitch in a border to help keep the two sides more securely in place. I chose a 1.5″ border – measured this out, then stitched around, and… voila! placemats!
*NOTE: The placemats could be sewn entirely on the sewing machine without serging. The serging was done to prevent raveling.