My daughter sent me yardage of a Hoffman Spectrum Digital print titled Wanderlust Rome (ProductID: ZF-PAN-Q4441-339) and asked that I make placemats from it. The fabric is printed "sideways", in that the selvages are at the top and bottom of the following image. The horizontal repeat I measured as 17¼" is shown. I cut the yardage horizontally (along the grain) into three 14" high bands each the ~2 yard length of fabric.
Each band I cut into 17¼" wide rectangles, but I offset them so each placemat would have a centered building, either the Capitol (from the top band) or the Coliseum (from the middle band). To center the Capitol on each of the placemats, I had to shift the band sideways, out of alignment from originally printed, and seam two partial Capitols to make one centered one; but the print was busy enough the seam was well camouflaged. I let the flowers of the bottom band fall where they may. I used the self-binding method where a backing fabric I supplied wrapped to the front and resulted in a narrow ½" border. Sandwiched between the front and backing was a layer of bamboo batting. Here are three of the six placemats prior to quilting.
The quilting pattern I used is right out of Angela Walter's free motion quilting book
Shape by Shape. It shows up much better on the back. The petaled squares add a nice texture to the front without obscuring or distracting from the color-washed print.
With the leftovers from the horizontal band and leftover backing fabric there was enough to cut out six 14" squares. They will make matching napkins with serged edges. Since I do not have a serger, my daughter will do that part.
