Dish Mat and Napkins: Finishing Week (Sewing)

There's a reason I left these to the end. I really hate sewing. Too many rules, too much danger. Seriously, I'm always a breath away from a needle in the eye or my sewing machine attaching my digits to the cloth. Don't even get me started on rotary cutters LOL.

I finally finished the napkins, or more honestly, I finished the napkins that had all parts cut out. I still have six napkins to go but the linen isn't cut so... not my problem.

Here they are as a set:

Now the other thing I hate about sewing is all the attitude:

Everything must be squared off. CONFORM!

Bind all the raw edges!

Wibbly bits! I cast you out. Off with you; you're trash! 

Wibbly bits are my favorite part! So, imagine how unimpressed I was when I washed and ironed my beautiful fat quarters (sad name, hate calling them fat. How about Rubenesque Quarters? Or  Womanly Quarters?) there was a bunch of non-conformist edge dwelling thread friends. What to do?

Well, I cut them to fit the role they were designed for - you gotta grow up someday. *sigh*
But I left my heart on the cutting room floor... :-(
Then I scooped them up into a riotous color pile at the edge of my desk and smiled at them daily.

I've wanted a dish mat (or is it dish pad?) ever since I saw them on a flurry of blogs last winter. I think Jen  from Tatertots and Jello popularized them but they were so many places I'm not sure who to credit with the idea. The trouble was, I didn't want an orderly, straight lined, proper (perfectly lovely) dish mat... but I didn't want an "artistic" one either - it's going to be doing hard labor so it has to be friendly with the washer and dryer. What to do?

Yesterday when looking at my lovely uneven edges and selvages I realized I had my answer.

It's gloriously imperfect. Some are quilted properly, some have frayed edges. There's zig-zag stitches and straight. I needed a little text in there and many of the pieces were happy to volunteer - aren't the color dots and meadowsweet wonderful?!? 


The entire project was made of those rough edges - I wonder if Chris thinks the same about me somedays? LOL.

A dish mat is a great use for an old well-loved towel and some scraps of fabric. I highly recommend giving this project a try if you're so inclined. I took some "in process" photos so if anyone has any (simple) questions about how it's made. Just let me know.


Good thing I could gaze on my wonderful new dish mat last night as I had a

MOUNTAIN 

of dishes after making the best meal I've ever eaten in my whole life. Chris and the kids requested it for Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving and all their birthdays - yeah, it was that good. We had Shrimp Boil on a Stick with Lemon Thyme Butter:

The photo does zero justice to the spicy, flavorful mouth-party that this meal was. Oh my goodness!

So ladies - what did you finish, please share your successes.

P.S. Here's the 2nd dish mat I made, lots of pink strawberries on this one:

P.S.S. At least personally, I'm morphing Finishing Week into Finishing Fortnight because I'm on a serious roll around here and it feels so good.

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