Good Monday  to you! About a month ago Stay Home Fabrics and I planned a tutorial for you, and little did I know that the shop would get a new owner before it got posted! So, today I get to introduce the new owner and give you a cute (and easy) quilted dish mat tutorial. Disclosure: The fabric I’m using was given to me by Stay Home Fabrics for the purpose of creating this tutorial. This is a sponsored post, and my opinions are always my own. Thanks for reading!

If you haven’t made a dish mat before, trust me, you need one! This dish mat is simple with a pieced quilted top and a bath towel as the absorbant backing. I have made tons of these and been using them for years now. It’s perfect for drying the “almost dry” dishes coming out of your dishwasher – and great when you are hand washing as well! Plus, it’s way more absorbent than a tea towel and you can customize it in the perfect fabric to match your kitchen.

When I was playing around with ideas for quilting this dish mat, I was inspired by the look of plates on a plate rack, or lined up on a wall. The Joel Dewberry, Antler fabric would make fabulous plates, don’t ya think?! That inspired the round-ish “plates” lined up in rows with solid sashing between. I made this dish mat extra large because I always have tons of plastics coming out of the dishwasher  that need a little extra drying time. This will hold all of them! Hooray! (P.S. This would also make a super-cute table runner. Just piece a few end to end for the front and use batting and backing instead of the towel for the back!)

Before we get to the tutorial, I’d like to introduce the new owner of Stay Home Fabrics, Lisa Sali! And, before we get to her bio, I am 100% certain you want to know that they are offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders placed between Feb 9 and midnight on the 11th!

I am happy to say that Stay Home Fabrics is not moving far, Lisa is located only 10km away from where Lindsay (the previous owner) was living! Here’s a bit about Lisa…

My name is Lisa Sali and I am the proud new owner of Stay Home Fabrics.  I am married and have 3 wonderful kids.  Sewing has been around me my whole life. Now that my babies aren’t babies anymore I have realized that sewing is something I really enjoy doing; from seeing how different colours and prints go together, to finding the right pattern, all the way through to seeing the final result of a project.

When the opportunity to purchase Stay Home Fabrics arose my husband and I were very excited!  As existing business owners we saw the importance of keeping the company located in Saskatchewan.  It is also an opportunity for me to do something that I truly love to do while still being able to stay home with our children when they aren’t at school.

I am looking forward to getting to know customers new and old and continuing to provide high quality materials in great colours and patterns delivered right to your mailbox. As always if there is something you would like to see on the website please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to find exactly what you are looking for.  Stay tuned to both the website and Facebook page as there will continue to be great promo codes and bundles available.

Now that you know more about Lisa, you can head over to the shop and get some fabric for your new quilted dish mat? (Maybe one of the 45 new Art Gallery prints they just stocked!)

Details:

• Final Size: 30″ x 21.5″
• Use 1/4″ seam allowance throughout, except for binding
• Press each seam right after sewing it.
• Press seams open or to one side.
• This tutorial assumes a bit of prior quilting knowledge, but, if you have a good 1/4″ seam you should be fine!

Materials:

• 1 Fat Quarter Quilting Cotton (or large scraps) Joel Dewberry, Birch Farm – Antler in Damask for 2 plates
• 1 Fat Quarter Quilting Cotton (or large scraps)  Hexagon Fabric for 1 plate & 1 partial plate
• 1 Fat Quarter Quilting Cotton (or large scraps) Joel Dewberry, Prism in Egg Blue for 1 plate & 1 partial plate
• 1/2 metre/yard Quilting Cotton  Joel Dewberry, Birch Farm – Horse Blanket in Burlap for 1 plate & binding
• 1/2 metre/yard Quilting Cotton Freespirit Solid for plate corners & sashing
• 1 regular size Bath Towel for the backing
• matching thread for piecing
• matching thread for quilting (bobbin to match towel)

Cut the following pieces:

• A – 5 fussy cut squares for plates – 8 1/2″ square
• B – 2 fussy cut rectangles for partial plates – 5″ wide by 8 1/2″ tall
• C – 24 squares for plate block corners – 3″ square
• D – 1 horizontal sashing strip –  30″ wide by 2 1/2″ tall
• E – 2 horizontal sashing strips – 30″ wide by 2 1/4″ tall
• F – 2 vertical sashing strips – 1 3/4″ wide by 8 1/2″ tall
• G – 5 vertical sashing strips – 2″ wide by 8 1/2″ tall
• 3 strips for dish mat binding – 2.5″ tall by width of fabric (at least 40″)
• 1 towel rectangle – 33″ wide by 24″ tall (this is over-sized and will be cut down after quilting)

Here we go. First, let’s get the fussy parts out of the way so we can get to the exciting part!

1. Binding: Piece the three binding pieces together end to end, using a 1/4″ seam allowance. You should have a piece of binding just a bit less than 120″ long. Fold in half, matching the long edges and press well. Set aside.
2. Prep the small squares: Draw a pencil line diagonally from corner to corner on the wrong side of each of your small 3″ squares.

Piecing:

1. Place a 3″ square in one corner of a large 8.5″ square, right sides together, as per the photo below. Stitch along your marked line. Trim off the corner of both squares leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance. Press open or to one side.
2. Repeat 3 more times, once for each corner of the square. Press well.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each of the 4 remaining 8 1/2″ squares. Square the blocks up slightly if necessary.
4. Use the 4 remaining 3″ squares to make the 8.5″ x 5″ partial plates. Make sure the corners are stitched on the left or right sides based on where the partial plates will be in the final layout.
5. Lay your pieced plates out on a large surface, as they will be in the dish mat. Place your vertical and horizontal sashing strips as indicated in the drawing/photo below. Refer to the cutting layout above and letter designations in the cutting list to make sure each piece is correctly placed.
6. Piece the vertical sashing between each plate to make the rows.
7. Now add the horizontal sashing to finish piecing the top.
8. Press well. Square to 30″ wide by 21.5″ high if necessary.

1. Centre on towel with wrong sides together. Pin baste to secure. Every 4″ or so worked for me. I should be using curved safety pins… but since I don’t have any, these will do!
2. Quilt through all layers as desired. I stitched straight(-ish) lines every 1 1/2″ across the width of the top. Match top thread to top and bobbin to towel.
3. Cut the excess towel to match the edges of the pieced top. Square up the quilted fabric and towel if necessary.

1. Bind as desired, or use these instructions to attach via machine binding.

And you’re finished. Go dry your dishes in style!