We’ve been concentrating more on healthy eating at home, and keeping my mind on food has lead to an urge to make some scrappy, visually interesting placemats.  I can’t help it, my brain just defaults back to sewing from so many other topics.  When I saw a preview of the new “Shape Workshop for Quilters” book from Fat Quarterly, I immediately wanted to try the Satellite Placemats.  (See the preview here, or buy here.  Great price for such a beautiful book!)

My first project from the book is still a work in progress:

This is my first attempt at something with so many seams meeting up in the middle.  I’m thankful for that center dot that conceals some of the wonkiness, and I’m hoping I can do well enough sewing around all those tiny circles!  I still haven’t tried free motion quilting, and I’m not sure this is the time to attempt it.  But I do love this design, so I think I’ll keep going and just see.  (I’m seeing it as a dart board so far, and a few friends saw pizza.  Maybe with other prints and colors I’ll start to see a satellite.)

The book is full of modern quilt blocks, complete quilts and other projects in fresh, inspiring colors.  There’s a selection of templates in the back, along with a basic quilting tutorial and helpful tips throughout the book for the technical bits, and loads of gorgeous photos for your creative side to drool over.  Great book!