Welcome to Day 10 of the Minnesota Designer’s Blog Hop. I’m so glad you stopped by to join the fun.

I’m Shelly Stokes, and I’m the owner of Cedar Canyon Textiles. Most people know me as the “paintstik lady.” I discovered this wonderful paint product about 10 years ago in a book from the UK. You can read more about my adventure with paintstiks by clicking over to the “About” page on our website.

I’m back from the big Bernina University event in San Francisco and ready to serve up some serious paintstik fun! (At least now that I’ve recovered from that red-eye flight… it seemed like a great idea when I booked the flight, but I’m not at all sure I’ll do that again!)

Leave a comment today to tell me how you will use your placemats or who will receive them as a gift. From all the comments today, we’ll choose a lucky winner for a Paintstik Starter Pack. You’ll get a set of iridescent painstiks, a copy of Painstiks on Fabric, and one set of our rubbing plates. Now, let’s get started!

Easy Paintstiks Placemats

You can download the free pattern from the Learning Center. While you are there, download the Top Tips for Great Rubbings that were discussed in an earlier post on the blog as you will need the instructions from Top Tips for painting your placemat fabrics.

As with all paintstik projects, you need to have a “paint day” and a “sewing day” to make Easy Paintstik Placemats. If you plan them a week apart, the paint will have plenty of time to dry. Plan for at least 3 days to avoid issues with wet paint — trust me — you really do have to let the paint dry for a couple of days or you’ll be making a mess!

I chose Gradations fabric from Benartex for this project because the graduated color changes adds a wonderful effect to the finished project. I especially like the Rainbow versions of this fabric because the color changes happen faster than they do with the other variations. If you don’t have Gradations fabric handy, just choose a nice fabric from your stash that is not an obvious print — because you’ll be making your own!

Here is a quick overview of the sequence for making the placemats. The complete instructions are in the pattern on the Learning Center.

Work Day 1: Paint your fabric

First, paint about half of each placemat “top” using your favorite set of Cedar Canyon rubbing plates. I made up fabric for 6 placemats, one from each of the Curves plates. To make “piled up” rubbings like this, I put my fabric over the rubbing plate and paint a part of the image. Then I move the fabric a bit and paint the next partial image, overlapping it a bit with the first image. You can read more about this technique in the Top Tips document you downloaded from the Learning Center.

After you finish painting, set the fabric aside for at least 3 days to allow the paint to dry. Allow 5 – 7 days if you live in a really humid area. After the paint is dry, you can heat set the paint by tossing the fabric in the clothes dryer on the hottest setting for 30-40 minutes. (Don’t even think if putting the fabric in your dryer until it dries for at least 3 days — and if you do, don’t call me!)

Work Day 2: Stitch Placemats

The assembly for the placemats is really fast and easy. First, cut the painted fabric in 3″ strips.

Then, reverse the strips so the painted end of the strips alternates between one end and the other. Number the strips 1 through 5.

The placemats are assembled with a sew-and-flip method. Layer your backing and batting, and mark a line 8″ from one long edge of the batting. Put strip 3 face up next to this line, add strip 4 face down on top of strip 3, then stitch with a quarter inch seam. Flip strip 4 open and press. Add the remaining strips using the same sew-and-flip method.

After you add all the strips, trim the placemats to get a nice finished edge, add binding, and you have an Easy Paintstik Placemat!

Bonus – Make a matching Table Runner

You can make a table runner to coordinate with your placemats by simply starting with a wider piece of fabric. Rather than starting with a 16 x 19 piece of fabric, start with 16 x 36 — or the width of the fabric if you have a big table. Again, paint half of your fabric with rubbings, leaving the other half plain. Use the same assembly steps that you used for the placemats and you’ll have a matching ensemble for your table.