Abakhan Projects on a Budget

Hi, my name is Catherine and I blog over at Sewonderfulife.  When I saw Lynne's post asking for ideas of what to make with a theme of 'garden' from the fabulous selection at Abakhan, I knew instantly what I wanted to make and I was so excited when Lynne said to go ahead.  So today I am going to show you how to make a tablecloth for the garden table.

Taken between rain showers and wind bursts!!

I ordered a metre each of these lovely fabrics and some thread.  Delivery was very prompt so I got started immediately

You will need a 45 degree triangle template for this.  I don't have one, so drew one on some paper - it works, but a template would be easier! The height of my triangle is 10", but you can make this whatever size you like: just remember to add on 1/2 inch in total for seam allowance.  Take the two solid fabrics and place together - sew along the top and bottom, to make a tube.  

From these stitched strips you are going to cut eight pieced diamonds.  Line the bottom of the triangle against the bottom of the fabric.  The tip of the triangle should be just touching the top stitching.

And cut.  You will end up with  these:

Now flip your template and cut again:

Cut 8 of these.  Now cut 18 single triangles from your background fabric.  Position a background triangle on the top triangle:

 - match the top corner of the triangle to the tip of the diamond.  The tip of the triangle will extend below the seam of the pieced diamond - I always check it looks ok by using the 1/4" mark on my ruler and flipping it over:

Stitch 1/4" from the edge.  Press the seam toward the background triangle and repeat with the other side

 Again, use your ruler to make sure you have even edges. And now you have one block

Keep going - and join them in to pairs. 

Join two pairs to make one half.  You don't need to worry about your points meeting exactly in the middle - we will be cutting a hole in the middle later

Once you have your two halves, line them up and sew them together. 

To make the backing, I cut four squares and sewed them all together.  We will trim it all to shape at the end

Pin the front and back together: wrong sides together. Now we need to cut a hole in the middle.  I used this highly technical bit of kit to cut out my middle hole.  Just draw around something and cut  

Trim the square back to match the hexagonal top.  Now you can sew/quilt as you like.  I just did a simple running stitch on mine.  And then bind it.  I used a very thin piece of binding for the inner circle, it was a lot less fiddly.  Your table cloth is complete.  If you live in the UK all you need now is some sunshine!!

I also made a test version of this with fat quarters - have a look at my blog, for those pictures.  Thanks Lynne for giving me the chance to put my idea to the test.