Christmas placemats waiting for Christmas

and so are my kids.

I got hugs from my kids when they discovered the placemats I was making for Christmas. We haven't had a tree in a number of years now, we have one in the garden, growing tall. I do try to have a little Christmassy decoration though.

This year it will be the placemats and advent candles. Next year hopefully I will have made a matching table runner ....

All five are done now, I had forgotten that two were completely the same, there must have been a reason last year, forgotten, so I tried to make a difference using different decorative stitches.

My projects on my list of projects-that-need-finishing is moving in the right direction, slowly slowly I am finishing fun projects ... and feel a sense of accomplishments.

I am linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for my November One Monthly Goal.

Linking up with FAL 2018, project 8 of my list, 3 out of 10 done.

We are ready for Christmas.

Christmas placemats peeking out of their hiding

Last year I started making placemats with Christmas fabric from Higgs & Higgs. I kept on seeing messages popping up on my FB page and one day decided to just give it a go and order. I cut the fabric and assembled the top, started quilting one of the placemats and my machine gave up. On my regular sewing machine, that I received as a gift in 1983 (0r 1984) I can sew but as the machine is too old to get accesories for, I cannot use it for FMQ. For my US bought machine (110V) I have a few feet I can use, and it is this machine that started acting up. The pedal became hot, not just warm, no pretty warm. I opened it, cleaned it with rubbing alcohol (MDH advised me) and it still got warm, slightly warm only. But electrical issues scare me. On top of this, the tension was off. So instead of pushing on with the placemats and do a crappy job, I packed them away.

Christmas is coming up in less than two months, so maybe give the placemats another go? First where are they???? It took me some time to think and go through my fabric stash .....

Next step .... how to quilt them ...... ???? As I was reading one of the magazines of Quiltfolk, I got inspired and decided to use decorative stitching on the sewing line to quilt the three layers together. By using a different stitch for each place mat, not only will the fabric be different for each, the stitches as well.

My One Monthly Goal organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts for November is to finish the placemats. Well, yes, am putting off finishing my Bella Skill Builder quilt again. As am traveling for work I will work on it in December.