If my first book collaboration with Martingale Publishing and Moda Bake Shop seemed to take forever to arrive (and it did), the second one arrived before most of us MBS “Chefs” were ready for it! Charmed by Moda Bake Shop is in or on its way to your local quilt shop now, and this is one in a series of blog posts the chefs will be publishing over the course of the next few weeks to introduce the book. Many of us will take a project from the book and do a little something special with it.
My contribution to the collection is a lap quilt I called “Cobblestones”. I used the “30’s Playtime” collection, designed by Chloe’s Closet for Moda Fabrics.
Once I got over the thrill of seeing my quilt, “Cobblestones” on the (back) cover, I opened the book, and was blown away by the variety of the projects we came up with. I found Nicola Dodd’s tablerunner most “charming”, and it is one of several projects I’ve added to my to-do list.
When I first started publishing patterns, my Mother convinced me that a tablerunner pattern should have placemats to match, so I came up with a quick placemat idea to go with Nicola’s tablerunner.
For one pair of placemats, you will need:
1 Charm Pack of 5″ squares
.75 yard (white) fabric for block backgrounds, placemat backings
.25 yard (plaid) fabric for binding
I used a Charm Pack and fabrics from the “Renew” collection, designed by Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics.
Step 1:
Open the Charm Pack and choose squares to make two of the flower blocks from the book. I chose two pink squares for one flower block, two yellows for the second flower block, and a white square to use for the center of both blocks. I also picked one green square for each block (for leaves) and one gray square for each block (for flower pots.) I cut one 5″ strip from the white fabric and was able to cut all the background pieces for the two blocks from this strip.
Follow the instructions in the book to make two flower blocks. They’re so “happy”, they just make me smile.
Step 2:
Choose twelve more 5″ squares for each placemat (24 squares total) and trim each one to 4.5″ wide x 5″ high.
Lay the pieces out in three rows, with four pieces in each row. Sew them together into a block that measures 14″ tall and 16.5″ wide.
Sew a flower block to one side of the 12-patch block. Cut batting and backing fabric slightly larger than the size of the placemat top, layer the three and hand quilt or machine quilt as desired. Cut four 2.25″ strips (or 2.5″ strips, if you prefer) of the binding fabric. Sew two strips end-to-end end-to-end and to make the binding for each placemat.
If you’d like to see all of the projects in the book, here’s a short video produced by Martingale Publishing:
If you’d like to win your very own copy of Charmed by Moda Bake Shop, just leave a comment below, and tell me which precut type, you’d like to see the Moda Bake Shop Chefs develop recipes for next. I’ll do a random drawing on Friday, October 21, 2022. You can also win a book by leaving a comment on my Facebook and Instagram posts. (Unfortunately, U.S. addresses only.)
If you like Nicola’s “Charming Pots” tablerunner, you’ll want to check out her other designs at Cake Stand Quilts.
Seams Like a Plan 