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.