Beach Ball Placemats

The warmer weather has arrived and it is time to bring out the beach balls! Here in the US the last weekend of May is the beginning of all the fun outside summer activities. These quick and easy fabric beach ball placemats set the mood for dining on the patio on a pleasant summer evening. This great assortment of fabric from the Classic membership features On the Wind by Jill Finley for Riley Blake fabrics and the versatile Grunge collection from Moda.

Materials Needed:

• 1 yard of Airplanes fabric from Riley Blake

• Assorted fat quarters 

• 1 yard of Pellon fusible fleece

• 6 yards of double fold ½” white bias tape

• Coordinating Aurifil Thread from the Chroma Membership

• Misty Fuse

• 1 yard of backing fabric. I used Moda Grunge in assorted colors

To get started I found a free SVG of a beach ball from Clip Art Max and printed out an 8” ball. Cut the ball into 4 equal pieces and enlarge each section 183%. Tape the 4 enlarged ball pattern pieces together to make about a 14.5” ball. Cut out four balls from the Airplane fabric using the paper template.

For this set of placemats I used an assortment of fabrics and mixed up the placement of the colors on the beach ball. You could make all the placemats identical. I used a light box to trace the shape onto the fabric using a Frixion pen.

Cut out the 3 colored sections and the center circle of the beach ball in assorted fabric colors. Place the pattern under the base white fabric and position the colored sections in alignment with the pattern. Cut some pieces of Misty Fuse and place between the colored fabric and the base fabric matching the sections to the pattern lines and press in place.

Iron the beach balls onto the fusible side of the Pellon fusible fleece and cut out the circle shape. Next you will use a coordinating Aurifil thread and use a zig zag satin stitch to sew the colored sections and the center circle to the ball.

It is time to choose a color for the reverse side of the placemats. I used an assortment of four different colors in the gunge Moda fabric. Cut out the four ball shapes using the template. Cut a piece of the Misty fuse and press the backing in place with the wrong sides of the fabric facing together. It is not necessary to cut a piece of Misty fuse exactly the same size as the ball. I just used a few scrap pieces to hold it in place. At this point you can do some free motion quilting or just quilt along the zig zag stitching to create the outline of the beach ball to hold the three layers together. We are already at the final step of adding the bias tape to bind the edges of the placemats. I used the packaged double fold ½” white bias tape. If you prefer to make your own Sotak Handmade has a great tutorial for how to cut and sew bias tape for binding.

Place the edges of the placemat between the folded bias tape and topstitch in a coordinating thread about ⅛” from the edge catching all the layers in the seam.

The table is set and ready for family favorites hot off the grill, add the background music to create some fun summertime memories!