Wednesday Sewing - Quilted Spring Flower Table Mat

Here's the wildflower inspired quilted table mat I gave you just a hint of last week!  It's based on the Valentine's Day table mat I posted a tutorial on here.

Materials:
*1 1/2 yards of fabric for top and bottom
*small amounts of fabric for appliques -
  2 or three oranges
  2 or three purples
  2 or three greens
*embroidery thread
*fusible fleece or low loft batting
*Steam-A-Seam 2
*2 1/2 yards bias tape
*patterns found here

Basically, this is put together in the same way I put the Valentine table mat together, so you can refer to that post for the details.

1.  Using pattern, cut out the top and bottom pieces - see the Quilted Valentine Table Mat post for instructions on making the pattern for the top and bottom pieces.  Fold the top piece into quarters and make a mark at the point (where my finger is pointing).

2.  Trace the rest of the patterns onto one side of Steam-A-Seam 2 and iron onto the wrong side of the appropriate color of fabric (see this post if you haven't used it before).  You'll need 4 of poppy petal 1, 4 of poppy petal 2, 4 of poppy petal 3, 4 poppy leaves, 4 poppy stems, 1 lupine leaf, and 60 lupine petals.  Cut out the pieces and remove the Steam-A-Seam 2 backing.

3.  Lay the lupine leaf directly in the center of the top piece.  Arrange the poppy stems underneath the lupine leaf.  Put poppy petal 1 at the top of the poppy steam.

3.  Lay poppy petal 2 over the edge of petal 1.  Lay poppy petal 3 over the edge of petal 2.

4.  Add poppy leaves.

5.  Between each poppy, lay two lupine petals - one overlapping the other just slightly.  Add two more on top of the first two.  Continue layering lupine petals until you have 1 left - layer this last one on top pointing up.

6.  Adjust the pieces until you like the arrangement and iron into place.

7.  You can finish the applique edges with a machine zigzag stitch or with hand embroidery.  To give a bit of a folk art feel, I used three strands of embroidery thread and finished the edges with a blanket stitch.  I also used a feather stitch down the center of each poppy leaf, and added three french knots to poppy petal 1.  I have a tutorial for the blanket stitch here and french knots here.  There are good instructions for the feather stitch on Sharon B's site here.

8.  A quick recap on putting it together - cut out a piece of fusible felt or low loft batting (fuse it to the back if you're using something fusible), layer the pieces and pin into place, working from the middle out.

9.  Free motion quilt (this post has a tutorial).  I realized that I always use stippling, so I did a quick search for free motion patterns and found this wonderful site!  Leah Day also realized she was only using stippling and decided to challenge herself to come up with 365 other patterns.  Her Free Motion Quilting Project found here records what she's done so far - 258 patterns and counting!  I highly recommend getting a cup of something hot and sitting down for awhile with it.

I ended up deciding to do the same spiraling line patterns I do when I doodle.

10.  Bind the edges - I like to use bias tape (see this post).

11.  Iron and enjoy!

Happy Creating!  Deborah