Let’s be clear, I’m not a seamstress or a quilter. However, last year I sewed a t-shirt quilt (which does NOT qualify as quilting, in my opinion) out of my father-in-law’s t-shirts (he passed away in early 2023) for my mother-in-law as a Christmas present. I had a really good time making it and working against Christmas Eve as a deadline; there was hustle, bustle, Christmas music, secrecy, intrigue, and lots of memories. Now I’m wondering if t-shirt quilts are a gateway “drug” to real quilting?

I think I liked the fact that I finished a project 100% more than anything! I’m a procrastinator and I typically only finish projects 90 to 95%, as long as things are functional. It was the high of finishing the project and feeling so pleased that I really enjoyed. When you finish a project there is a great amount of motivation produced, which can push you to start another project to try and replicate the process. However, I think I might have gotten addicted?

I decided I wanted to make an actual twin-sized quilt. I’ve been working on that (a Christmas tree) quilt since January 2024 and the deadline is Christmas Eve. I think that’s another post/story though.

Meanwhile, I needed to work on a smaller project to learn how to machine quilt with stencils. I know, Dear Reader, you were wondering when I would discuss the Halloween placemats. I’ve been wanting to show them to you to see what you think!

Halloween Placemats

I’ve been collecting Halloween fabrics in my stash for years, and I added a couple more pieces this year and realized somehow they all matched. Hence, the idea to make quilted Halloween placemats. I’ve made quilted pillows before, so I wasn’t a complete rookie. It was the machine quilting part that I’ve never done, and I was curious about using chalk and stencils.

Using Stencils & Chalk

Here are the two different stencils I purchased from Full Line Stencil. In hindsight, the jack-o-lantern stencil was really too complicated of a stencil for me to be begin with. The cat and the moon was more basic and turned out to be an easy stencil to use for my first time. I loved working with these stencils and pounce pad and will definitely be using Full Line Stencils for my Christmas tree quilt. I love that the excess chalk just irons off, which is total sorcery!

Things I Learned

Things I learned: 1) Initially, I didn’t know darning feet even existed, but I had to get a darning foot for the sewing machine so I didn’t have to rotate the quilt as I machine quilted (obviously a total game changer), 2) I stenciled four (4) patterns onto a placemat all at the same (the ones I wasn’t actively machine quilting rubbed off before I could get to them) when it would have been best to machine quilt one stencil pattern at a time, 3) I chose silver embroidery thread to machine quilt with, which was more delicate than normal thread and I had to sew a lot more gingerly and constantly adjust the tension in an effort to not snap the thread off when making tight turns, and 4) tension, tension, tension, and 5) chalk got everywhere, which I wasn’t prepared for!

Making Heirlooms

These placemats probably took me 16 hours to make because I’ve never done anything like this before. They are definitely family heirlooms now! It was a fun little journey. I’m ready to really get going on the Christmas tree quilt now.