Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Jinny Beyer Border Placemats Yardage and Cutting Tip

Love using Jinny Beyer Border prints to make stunning mitered borders. This can also be done to make a placemat or table runner.

Jinny has a free pattern at her website for making the placemat or table runner.

Since I am teaching this as a class on Tues. April 28 --I made some with the Milan border -red (this also would be a fresh border for my Mi Amore pattern!). So excited with the results. There are two centerlines, so thought with 1 yard I could get two placemats. Each is beautiful and I came out with some stunning results. But the pattern's suggested approximate1/2 yard didn't yield me a placemat, 1 yard didn't yield me 2.

So, here are a few tips when selecting your fabric to know how much you need.

There are 6 pieces to each placemat. You basically need 6 center points. The Milan fabric only has 4 strip sets on the width of fabric, so one repeat isn't going to be enough. you need two--3 repeats plus appropriate clearances should yield you 2 placemats!

Clearance requirements: Make sure you have at least 6 1/2" clearance from the edge of the fabric to your chosen center line, and you need two repeated center lines with that same clearance on the other side to be safe. In the case of Milan, the center line repeat is 24", so at least 1 yard + 1" if the 'cut edge off the bolt' was placed appropriately would be necessary for me to get 1 placemat and be safe. With 1 yard I almost got two placemats using different centerlines (there were two symmetrical center lines in the design), but needed a few more inches in order to get the required pieces for either.



This is what I was able to get with the randomly cut yard.



After cutting another 43" from the bolt so that I had the right additional elements. I yielded these:


An important test is to use chalk (taylor's or chaco wheel) to mark off your templates on the uncut yardage to insure you've got enough or can maximize what you have based on the center lines available.

Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Island Batik Ambassador 2015

It has been too long since I posted something on this blog, but I've been really busy with lots of new exciting projects coming into view.

One of the big announcements is that I have been selected as an Island Batik Ambassador for 2015. 
 
 
 
Along with this honor comes freebies of fabric that I get to design with and/or giveaway! So, this year you'll see me participating in several blog hops that will include giveaways with beautiful new Island Batik fabric.

Here is a sneak peek at the first batch of fabrics that I got! The two larger (1 yard each piece) bundles are fabric groupings called "Haystack" and "Chickencoop". How is that for inspiration?

The smaller bundles are approximately 3" x 10" of each piece --just enough to really see what the motif is. Thinking something very scrappy but the colors will all coordinate beautifully.

Any ideas on what you'd make with these? These are all fabrics being released at Spring Market in May. I've got a few ideas already and will be participating in a blog hop this July featuring something from this group and giving away some fabric!

Many of last year's Ambassadors are participating in a bloghop called "Little Gems" that starts tomorrow. Check it out at Kauffman Designs.

I've also got a new quilt with pattern being released at Spring Market in the Island Batik booth -- "Woven Braid". I'll have a full post about this next month.
 
Looking forward to hearing from you out there in blog land.
 
#IslandBatik