Miami Quilting

The other day I mentioned in passing some good times in Miami.  Gay-Gay, my daughter's mother-in-law, defies all the nasty things people say about mothers-in-law.  When we met, we quickly became good friends.  Unfortunately, I'm in New York and she's in Miami, so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like.

This past Christmas I really wanted to quilt something for her.  But who needs a quilt in Miami?!  Then I found these place mat patterns.  Fun!

  Each place mat used a batik, two marbled solid colors, and a print.  I used "Miami" colors -- blues and pinks.  The letters and shapes are a very dark brown print. 

Choosing a print that worked with a batik was a bit of a challenge.  The colors in this little floral were OK, but the print itself wasn't my favorite.

On the other hand, this leaf print looked pretty good.

The letters and shapes are all fused and machine-appliqued.

 This was my favorite.  I used a pale print that was more like a batik.  And I had a green print of unknown origin in my stash  -- I think I bought it to make doll clothes for my daughter several decades ago.  It is NOT good in large pieces, but it worked great for the olive!








I love batiks, so I used the main batik from the front of each place mat for the backing.

The pattern didn't call for any quilting at all, but the batting needed it.  I ditch-stitched, then hand-quilted around one pattern element in the batik section of the front.  (This doesn't really show up in these photos).