This little present was severely overdue.

It's for my friend, Rose, who wanted to give her family some new place mats for christmas. Yes, I know. Christmas. Yikes! I've learned my lesson. I feel terrible and I'll never do this again. Sorry, Rose.

These place mats were a little more complicated than my own, but I think they are worth it. (Perhaps I'll need a new set for myself?) I did learn something new in the process of making them: how to sew binding on solely by machine. I had only ever attached binding on quilts by machine sewing one side and hand sewing the rest. This is so much quicker.

I also realized that I had been folding my mitered corners incorrectly, too. Thank god I figured it out. It's much neater when you do it right. 

Here's a little close up of my newly perfected corners:

Don't you just love the Alexander Henry 2D Zoo print? I do! Apparently, I can't get enough... here & here.

I added a little suprise to the package for Rose. She has asked me about these coasters I started awhile back and said she could use a few for her new place. I like them a lot. Not perfect, but the fabric is cute. I'll post the pictures of the rest of the coasters soon.

I was very productive this weekend! I think the tote bag really gave me a boost of confidence.

I finished two items (or six, really) that have been needed for quite some time: pot holders and place mats. Many months ago I suggested that maybe we just buy them, but Etienne would not let me. He told me I had to make them myself.

After quite some time, deliberating about which style of placemats to make, I settled on a classic three panel tryptich. Haha. No. Kidding. I made that up, of course. I just  thought it might be nice to pretend that the side panels were meaningful. A place where the silverware could lay. Designated.

The place mats are double sided. The black for when you have some Indian food and the cream for when you are eating cereal. Very important. Actually I just wanted some variety and wanted so badly to use both colors of the Lecien My Folklore fabric. It's soooo cute. I mean mushrooms, electric blue squirrels, and fruit bearing trees with roosters! I had to use it for something that I could look at often.

It was pretty much the same thought for the pot holders. I almost made robot pot holders, but Etienne suggested using one of the really cute fabrics instead. I bought this polar bear and bunny summer fabric a long time ago. Just look at the polar bears cycling and smiling. And the bunny in his old fashioned swimsuit is great.

I used Denyse Schmidt's "Too Hot To Handle" pot holder pattern from her quilting book. I decided to make it thicker, though, by adding a layer of insulating material for safety. No burns, thank you very much.

And the craftiest, most amazing part of all... the binding. When I made Joan's tote bag out of sheets I cut off the edge of the sheets where the fabric was folded up. I thought, "Kim. You should save that. In the most perfect crafty world we can use EVERY bit of leftover fabric. No wasting, please." So, I opened it up and used it for binding. Not very complicated, but I felt good that I wasn't wasting and that I didn't have to make any binding myself. Bleh. I think the white binding looks really nice against the rest, too.