A placemat for Silvia

On my last visit to Portugal, my aunt Silvia, who lives in beautiful Viana do Castelo, gave me a gorgeous embroidered tablecloth. In traditional blue on white linen, embroidered cloth is famous in this region! It's so pretty....

So, i've made her a placemat. And while it isn't nearly as precious as the tablecloth she gave me, it is my favourite so far. I'm hoping it will bring her joy and happiness whenever she has breakie or a meal  on it out on her sunny Viana verandah. I can't wait to give it to her.

The pattern is based on the drunkards path design, but i loved the way Angela Pingel put hers together in Modern Blocks, so i've based the layout on this. This was my second attempt (after a bit of a disastrous first attempt), at sewing curves for the drunkards path, and i must say i'm pretty happy with it. I can highly recommend using templates!

I've done some spiral quilting using my walking foot in the hope of showing off those curves and it turned out well. I like the quilting on the back too (this Kaffe Fassett fabric is one of my favourites, so i like the back as much as the front!). The quilting is nice and close and other than the centre of each spiral, the stitches are ended off only underneath the binding, so it should be nice and durable after many washes.

 Here's hoping Silvia will love it.....