Placemats and Poilane Sour Dough Bread

Everyone needs and uses placemats. And if you have the time, it’s easy to make your own and a great way to use up fabric scraps and small pieces of batting if you're quilting the placemats.

Just think of all the different colors and designs that can be incorporated in making your own unique placemats that go with your very own color scheme and personal decor. No more being content with the colors and designs offered by the big box stores, allowing some unknown buyer to determine your decor.

Here are some placemats I’ve made over the years. I eventually would like to have one or two designs for each month reflecting the different seasons and holidays.

For the backing I used denim from old jeans

My serger does a cool wave stitch

Appliqué makes me feel creative. Most any design can be created.

(I think I need to get busy sewing placemats because those are all the ones I've made for myself.)

After finishing this quilt using batik fabrics, I had plenty of scraps that I turned into HSTs, like 96 of them!

What to do with HSTs?! SO MANY OPTIONS! After playing around with several options I finally settled on this design for my placemats.

I made 4 with the multi-colored border

And 4 with a dark green border because I was running short on scraps from my scraps. I love that concept of acquiring scraps from scraps 😊

I’ve decided to add these to the items on my Etsy shop, well, since I need more products on there!

Try making your own placemats someday. You're creative! You can do it!

                And now onto the Sour Dough Bread 👅💦

Poilane is a famous bakery in Paris well known for their huge round loaves of sour dough bread (book cover picture) using a recipe that’s been passed down in their family since 1932. The bakery was started by Pierre Poilane then passed on to his son, the famous baker Lionel Poilane, who along with his wife, died suddenly in a tragic helicopter accident in 2002.  The bakery is now run by their daughter, Apollonia. Her first cookbook in English was released on Oct 31st.  The cookbook, Poilane The Secrets of the World Famous Bread Bakery (non-affiliate link. I just love the book and want to share) is an awesome book filled with many family stories, baking processes and of course recipes, including their famous sour dough bread recipe.

      Here are some delicious photos from the cookbook



           And...

Here are photos of my version of their sour dough bread. Mine is smaller and taller, but all I had was a 10 inch cast iron pot. The recipe called for a 14 inch pot, but hey, you work with what you have. Regardless, the bread was delicious with a soft firm crumb and dark crusty crust. We enjoyed the bread several ways for 5 days then made bread crumbs with what was left.

Toasted and spread with Irish Butter

Toasted with melted Hot Pepper Cheddar cheese and Honey Ham

Wish I can share the recipe but, well...you know about those pesky copywrite laws. The book is awesome and reasonably priced and if you like baking bread and reading a good story I suggest you purchase the book. I'm looking forward to making more of the recipes!

If you sew up any placemats or bake any kind of bread, please share your creations or links in the comments below.

Happy Living!

Happy Sewing!

Happy Baking,

And Be Kind To All