Quilt in a Day Forums

Hello from Canada. We have a program here called Meals on Wheels. It is mostly for the elderly who are trying to stay in their homes but have difficulty cooking. Their meals are brought to them by wonderful volunteers and the meals are a very low cost. My quilting guild called Rainbow Country Quilters started making placemats at Christmas time and sending them out with a Christmas card to these people. Last year we made about 260. A couple of my friends help me to wrap them up and add a candy cane to make it look like a nice gift. I make one side of the placemat Christmas and the other side a different fabric so that side of the placemat can be used for the rest of the year. I get calls and letters of many thanks from these people who some told me it was their only gift because they have no other family. I wondered if anyone has easy placemat patterns they would like to share.

Susie,
I love your guild's project! It surely delights the recipients! The easiest and quickest placemat pattern I use is not really a written pattern. It is based on Eleanor's strip Christmas stocking pattern. I love it because you are quilting as you go. You simply cut coordinated fabrics in various width strips from 1 1/3" to 3". Cut a piece of piece of batting the size of the place mat you want to make. Then lay 2 strips, right sides together in a diagonal direction on the batting. Sew the strips together along with the batting under them. Open up the strips and lay another strip, right sides together to one of the first strips. Stitch the strips to the batting. Continue on until you have covered the batting. Trim the edges of the strips to match the batting and your top is done and quilted. Add backing and binding. These go really fast and you can assembly-line sew several place mats at the same time. If you have Eleanor's "Christmas at Bear's Paw Ranch" you can see the technique for the strip stocking, it is the same concept. Hope this is helpful.

We here in southern Maine also make placemats for Meals on Wheels. We have been making them for about five years now and the people that receive them love them. We do between 300 and 400 a year. We make them any way we want. Out of left over blocks or fabrics, or new patterns we want to try, etc.
We have received some heartwarming notes back from the people that get them.
It's a wonderful way for us to support another community project. I would recommend it to any guild.

I love the idea of placemats for the meals on wheels families. I will bring this up at my next guild meeting. Thank you for sharing. Thanks for the easy pattern too Linda

I used to deliver meals on wheels

Our small group (13) made placemats at Christmas time for the Senior Home that holds about 80 men and women. We used Christmas fabric on one side and fall fabric on the back. Everyone used their own patterns so we had quite a variety and every one loved receiving them.

Great idea and wonderful way to use scraps of fabric and batting. Happy stitching !!