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

My Day - Wicked Blog Hop and a Giveaway

Hope everyone is enjoying the hop and getting lots of marvelously wicked ideas. Thanks goes out to Wendy and Madame Samm for their excellent cheerleading skills and getting this hop together for us to showcase our talents!

Now...What to DO, What to Do!!

I wanted to try a technique that I've not done before and make use of my serger and embroidery machine...the ideas were swirling in my head!  

Okay...time to come out of the box and DO applique I said. "Applique? Really?" you say,  "You've never done applique before? And how long have you been quilting?" I know, I know...it's always intimidated me (sigh). I never wanted to take the time to transfer ALL those pieces, iron ALL those pieces, cut out ALL those pieces, then sew ALL those pieces. (sigh, sigh, sigh and sigh). So I picked a fairly easy design from the Happy Harvest book from The Wooden Bear and changed it up a bit to suit my needs. They did a pillow but I decided to do placemats instead.

They were very easy to assemble (only 28 pieces each...each placemat that is).

I did machine applique for the first time and rather enjoyed it...and was rather impressed with myself on how they turned out. Instead of batting I opted for a firm interfacing and ironed it to the backing fabric of the placemat then stitched in the ditch around both sides of the checked border. It seemed enough to hold everything down and not puff up. All they're going to be doing is sitting on the table anyway.

 I debated with myself on how to finish the edges of the placements...binding? That's how we always do it.  I needed to come out of my box more and remembered the Wave Stitch that my serger does. It was a perfect solution and was quick and easy. I chose a loose wave stitch to give it a more primitive look. 

But...I wanted to do more to complete my tables appearance so I dug through my embroidery designs and found some Halloween 3D ornaments to use as a centerpiece.

They were fun and easy to do. Lace is achieved by using water-soluble stabilizer .

The stabilizer is hooped and the design is stitched right onto the stabilizer then cut close to stitching and soaked in water for a few minutes. Wha-la...the stabilizer is gone and you are left with just the embroidered thread design....hence...lace.

Each are stitched out in three-like designs and then slotted together.  I needle and threaded each design together on the top and let them dangle.

The pumpkin was my favorite! 

My next table decoration actually was inspired by my DH. He had seen a pumpkin made with mason jar lids that had been painted orange and arranged in a circular pattern. Well...I thought...I can do that with yo-yo's I'm sure....and I surely did it! I used cinnamon sticks for the stems. Thanks DH!

And of course, we need to have a pumpkin recipe. This is the easiest muffin recipe and...oh so moist. Only two or three ingredients (even better)!

1. Boxed Spice Cake mix, 1 box 

2. Canned pumpkin, 15 oz. (not pie filling)

3. Nuts, seeds, raisins, dates of your choosing if desired

Combine dry cake mix and pumpkin...stir, stir, stir. Batter will be thick. Set aside for about 10 minutes, if desired, to rest batter and let dry mix incorporate into pumpkin, then stir, stir, stir again until well incorporated..batter will still be thick. Stir in nuts, seeds, raisins and/or dates if desired. Spray a muffin pan with spray oil and plop thick batter into muffin tins filling each about two-thirds full. (Don't forget to taste the batter...it's awesome. I was looking for something to spread it on).

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 12 - 15 minutes until golden brown. Makes 16 - 18 muffins.

I've also used lemon cake mix and vanilla cake mix but I think the spice cake mix is the best due to the added spices. The moisture is perfect so don't add any liquid. My sister added applesauce one time and water another time and the muffin tops were tacky after cooled. 

Soooo good and Soooo simple!!

Remember to check out today's Wicked Bloggers and see what Wicked things they have done:

Grandmama's Stories

Gracie Oliver Arts

Quilts by Christa

Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Ravelly’s

Pink's Sweet Treats

How Art You?

Georgia-Girl Quilter (you are here)

I Piece 2-Mary

Words & Stitches
The Distracted Domestic

And now for the giveaway.....

I am offering to one lucky person this Good Morning Charm Pack from Moda

I bought one for me too and just look at these fabulous prints...and this is just a dabble of what's in the pack!

It will bring some nice cheeriness to the cold dreary winter months ahead or continued sunshine to the coming summer months in the southern hemisphere!

Easy Rules...

1. Leave a nice comment.

2. For a second chance follow me and tell me you are following me in a separate comment.

3. Winners will be picked on Nov 1st by random number generator.

4. I have to be able to reach you by email so please make sure that I can.

5. I will ship internationally...no problem.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wickedly good time during the rest of the hop!!