Starlight Placemats

 

Placemats don't stay clean if they're being used. And that's what I made the Cat Chow Placemants for - to be used. But what was I going to use while they were in the laundry? I decided I needed to make at least one more set of placemats. Initially, I started making an appliqué set, but I had just finished making the Winter Magic wall hanging - and stitching down all of those snowflakes - so I decided to set that plan aside for now and make something simpler. 

I decided to try a new quilt block or two, so I pulled out this book which my middle sister got me for my last birthday. I love this book. It has been on my Amazon wishlist for years. It's out of print and any Canadian vendors on Amazon wanted a small fortune for it. Fortunately, I was able to find it for cheaper on the American Amazon, and my sister, who lives in the US, ordered it for me. It's in mint condition and still has the transparency grids in the back.
If you've been following my blog for long, you would be aware that I love trying out new quilt blocks and actually enjoy drafting them myself.

Drafting blocks for a different project, which I will finish eventually.

This is where the transparencies come in handy. 

But I actually didn't end up drafting either of the quilt blocks I used in these placemats. 

The first is New Star in the Heavens. I felt that the layout was simple enough that I could figure out the pieces needed without drafting the block. Though the appearance is the same, I did modify it in order to avoid Y-seams. I chose black as a more practical colour for the background than the mostly white background in the Cat Chow placemats, and decided to do one star in cool colours, and one in warm, using my stash of Michael Miller Fairy Frost. 

The second block is Star of Stripes. I was able to find this one in my BlockBase+ software, and printed out the templates. I only used them to help calculate measurements however, as once again I modified this block to avoid Y-seams. For the 8 striped diamonds composing the star, I used the template to determine the width of the fabric strips, which I cut of each colour, and stitched them in groups of three, with the ends staggered, and then cut the diamonds out of the strip sets. 
For the quilting I chose a rainbow thread and the Curvy Coil pantograph. I considered using one of my star pantographs, but I've used them all before, and I'm trying to use my other pantographs that haven't seen any use yet. I think this one worked well. 
These were both 9" blocks, but if I had to do it again, I would likely use an 8" block. I wanted to have a border on the placemats and with 2 - 9" blocks, that made for quite a large placemat, at around 13" x 20". 
I've thought that maybe I should start recording how I do these blocks so that other quilters who like to try new quilt blocks, but may not be as adept at figuring them out, can make them as well. Even with BlockBase+, it doesn't tell you how to actually assemble the block, even if you can find the block you want in the software.