There was a time when our family hardly ever sat down together for a relaxed meal. When I was working, I returned home at about six in the evening and then drove to two different daycares to pick up the children.* Needless to say, those evenings were hectic. I was exhausted, Robert was exhausted, the kids were exhausted, bedtime was looming and everybody was STARVING. Food had to be put on the table fast and without a lot of fuss. Thank goodness for frozen pizza.

Now, however, since I have the luxury of preparing meals in peace, we enjoy each other’s company over dinner more often. It’s one of the best improvements in our lifestyle since I quit my job. To honour the good food and good company, I dressed up our table with new placemats and napkins.**

It’s funny how such simple things can make life so much nicer. And when I say they’re simple, I’m not just referring to their ubiquity; I’m also referring to how easy they are to make. I didn’t think to take photos and turn this post into a complete tutorial, but I don’t think all those extras are necesarry for explaining how to construct these items. Think of it like learning to make one of your grandmother’s most admired cakes. You add a handful of this, a handful of that, mix and bake.

Here’s my recipe for placemats:

1. From a piece of paper (newspaper, gift wrap, freezer paper, whatever…), cut out a rectangle. It can be any size that pleases you. Just for reference, mine was 17″ X 13.5″. I just liked the look of that ratio. There’s no special reason for it.

2. Round of the corners of your pattern. You can do this by folding the rectangle in fourths and freehanding a curve with your scissors, or, if you’re more particular, you can use the edge of a plate to draw a curved corner and cut along that line. Whatever works for you!

3. Wash and dry your fabrics. Or not.

4. Cut out the fronts, backs and lightweight batting using this template as a guide. I think I had about a yard of each material and made four placemats.

5. Make your quilt sandwich and baste together using the method you prefer. The basting spray found in many fabric shops works great for small pieces like this.

6. Quilt as desired. I free-handed some swirling lines, but you could also stitch parallel lines for a nice effect.

7. Bind as desired. I used the quick and dirty method and bought a few packages of pre-made binding. Homemade binding could make these extra special.

Here’s my Recipe for Napkins:

1. Cut out 18-inch squares or whatever size you like. If I had had more fabric, I might have made mine about 20-21 inches square.

2. Hem. I used the method described in this Purl Bee tutorial, including the zig-zag stitching, which I really like.

Enjoy your creations!

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* My hat goes off to working mothers everywhere.
** I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to color correct these photos. The light in our dining room is not a traditional tungsten light. It really makes everything a ghastly yellow. Anyway, I’m sorry about the poor-quality photos here.

I actually hummed to myself as I was sewing my first pair of pants with a zipper. Constructing the fly was like folding an origami animal. Fold here and fold there, stitch, and voila! An architectural masterpiece of cloth and thread emerges. It was so cool seeing how that especially complicated part of a commonplace article of clothing was actually put together.

Because I was so excited about finally tackling a sewing task which had intimidated me only a short time before, I whizzed through the project. I could hardly put it down and had visions of clean topstitching and embroidered and embellished details making these the most special pants ever.

Those visions weren’t meant to be.

After stitching up the legs (finished with lovely French seams and topstitching), I tried on the pants. The legs were narrower than I liked. That I could live with. Unfortunately, I could not get the pants over my backside. How was that possible? I checked the measurements several times before even tracing the pattern, let alone cutting into the fabric. They should have fit perfectly. Admittedly, I don’t have the svelte behind of an 18-year old. Pregnancy forever changed that. But my backside isn’t enormous either. So, either there is a problem with the pattern, or I made a huge mistake (inconceivable! haha). From now on, I won’t “ass”ume a pattern will work out simply because the numbers on the package suggest it should.

But now I’m on a mission. I’m going to try this again, either by trying a different pattern that looks a little roomier to begin with, or by deconstructing a pair of my pants that fit well. It’s too interesting a project to give up at this early stage.

I actually finished something else this weekend that turned out great and will share that with you soon. I believe in taking risks once in awhile to learn something new, but rely on little successes along the way to keep my courage for the hard things intact.

I hardly ever have luck at thrift stores when I have a shopping list in hand. I never seem to find what I hope to find, but almost always discover something cool I hadn’t planned on looking for. This morning, for instance, I thought I’d go to the thrift store to look for some dishes to complement the placemats I’m sewing. My current dishes are mismatched, but not in a pleasing way, chipped and just plain ugly. I wanted a few pieces to make dining chez moi a little more elegant.

Didn’t find a thing. There seems to be a rainbow plastic theme going on in the dish section of my thrift store. It’s not quite what I was looking for.

Instead, I found this cardigan which perfectly matches my new pillows. Brilliant! Now, when I need a little time away from my duties as mom, wife, laundress, chef and finder-of-lost-items, I can don this cardigan and, chameleon-like, blend into the furniture.

I also found this charming fabric, which I will most likely fashion into a blouse or dress for my daughter.

It will be interesting to see if she likes something this “loud.” There’s no way she’s blending into anything wearing that print!