Quilting and Glueing

I finally picked the backing fabric and binding for my scrappy placemats.

I have several yards of this fabric.

I was going to do the binding where the back is 1" larger all the way around and the excess is folded over twice and stitched on the front but I thought I needed a neutral, somewhat solid binding. I selected a grunge black/grey fabric for the binding. I cut out the 2 1/2" binding strips and sewed them into one long strip last night, ready for pressing in half.

Tonight I got the quilting done on two of the placemats. Originally I wanted to do quilting lines 1/4" away from the stitched lines but I couldn't be bothered to do all that sewing. I decided to do 

a simple 'x' through the white squares. Using the Frixion (heat erasable) pen, it was easy to draw the 45° lines. I used white thread on the checkerboard side and black thread on the other side.
I have the lines drawn on the other two placemats and will quilt them tomorrow. Then I'll get the bindings done on all 4 mats, sewing them onto the dark side, then folding over to the checkerboard side and sewing down by machine.

I've had all the materials for the embroidery hoop box project for ages. Today I finally got going on making it. Marilyn and Poppy both gave me some stain to try out. I selected Early American 230. The dark walnut was too dark and the other colour  was too light. I thought I'd varathane them but won't bother this time.

These are 4" hoops mounted on a 5" wooden base, however any size hoop would work. I suggest finding a wooden base first then hoops that will fit on top.

I have some adjusting to do on the screw mechanisms on the front and some hinges to attach. I think it's going to look very nifty. I think some of my guild members might be interested in making one for themselves. The bottom could also be lined with felt or some fabric or even another piece of stitchery. A magnet could go inside the lid to hold needle. So many ideas to make it one's own.

This project was inspired by Vonna Pfeiffer, the Twisted Stitcher. Here's the link to her tutorial on the subject.

Now to decide what stitchery I'll use for the lid...

I bought two charts on a Facebook destashing group. There are three patterns in this book.

and Autumn Spice featured in Cross Stitch Quarterly.

The shipping within Canada was under $4 and they came in two days.