Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Thank you for your patience, we will now return you to the regularly scheduled SEWING programming

Yaay! Finally finished the 18" wool table mat. It wound up taking a lot more time than I had anticipated as it is all hand sewn and being the perfectionist that I am, there was a lot of stitch-ripping-out.

It's all wool, which is so much nicer to work with than that washed felt you see these made of in a lot of places. Trust me when I tell you that if you do see a pattern for this, ignore the instructions to use felt and go straight for the wool. Last time I bought the so-called 'wool' felt made to do these with at a shop, it was $8.50-$12.00 a yard. Wool is WAY CHEAPER and it is easier to needle through, looks a thousand times better, and doesn't look like something that was 'accidently washed'.

What took me so long was I had to rip out all the embroidery stitches I was doing. I was trying to connect my stitches so they looked like solid lines and NOTHING was coming out curved. My husband said it looked like a kindergartner had sewn it. So I tore out all the stitching and opted for a broken stitch which looks much more fluid and allows all the curly Q curves.

I like it a lot, but I'm so glad I'm done hand sewing for a while.

2 comments:

  1. Very cute, Susan!

    Tami from CTTM *something is wrong with the form for comments*

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is really cute. I have wanted to do one of these candle mats but was never sure what fabric to use. You said to use wool. Instead of the felt though. You can buy the wool at most fabric stores (joannes)?
    Thanks really pretty...

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate and look forward to your comments. Thanks for reading. Happy quilting!