Want to make fun, farm-themed placemats without a lot of fabric piecing or fuss?

Homestead Life Fabric placemat panel to the rescue!

With six designs all laid out for you in an 11″ h x 18″ wide format you simply add the batting, backing and binding and you are ready to use in your home, as a gift and more.

Using the pre-designed placemats from the panel is a great time to play with decorative stitching or free motion quilting if your machine has those options.

I had fun adding free-motion stitching over the wheat in the “Bless this Homestead” design and used a decorative stitch straight down each side to add some interest and secure the layers and the same time.

Stitching along the wood panel lines is a quick and easy way to tack things together as well – you can decide if you want to go straight through the text and images or leave those areas unstitched.

If you need more than 6 placemats or just want to add more variety to the mix, create more 11″ h x 18″ w layouts with the Homestead Life fabric.

I created some accent panels with the help of squares and some strips from the Homestead Life Rolie Polie. (The Rolie Polie’s from Riley Blake Designs are huge time savers!  They come with 40 pieces already cut into 2.5″ strips – there as so many ways to use them!)

HOW I CREATED MY PATTERNED PLACEMATS:

I choose a fabric I liked for the main print and cut an 11″ x 11″ square.

Next, I chose 6 strips from my Rolie Polie and cut 7.5″ strips. (You can use one pattern more than once of course!)

Sew the Rolie Polie strips together with scant 1/4″ seams. Press the seams open.

Center against the square and sew them together.  You can trim the Rolie Polie section to 11″ high before or after attaching to the square.

Presto! You now have a patterned top to mix and match with your panel placemats!

The possibilities are endless for creating placemats to complement the panel placemats.

• Use the Rolie Polie strips for horizontal, vertical or diagonal stripes.
• Create a quilt block for the square and then use a fabric, or Rolie Polie strips, for the side
• Use the central image from a panel and create a different layout for one or both sides.

But wait – there’s more!

I have more ways to use the Placemat Panel coming as well as other patterns and projects for the Homestead Life fabric.  

Have a creative day!

– Tara Reed

P.S. If you make placemats and post them on social media, be sure to tag me so I can see!