Puppy Love Placemat

Have a howling good time stitching up a set of these playful placemats, perfect for yourself and other dog lovers!

This Puppy Love Placemat combines patchwork doghouses and your favorite embroidered dog designs to match your pet's personality.

Read below for these free project instructions and create some today to celebrate your four-legged family members.

August's Puppy Love Placemat is the eighth installment of the Placemat of the Month series. Check back the first Wednesday of each month and you'll find a new placemat project, absolutely free for your use! Each project will demonstrate how to combine your love of embroidery with classic quilting methods.

Have you missed an installment? Links are below!

January - Snowball Block Placemat
February - Lots of Love Placemat
March - Patchwork Placemat & Patchwork Table Runner
April - Spring Pinwheel Placemat
May - Sunflower Fiesta Placemat
June - Summertime Trapunto Placemat & Summertime Trapunto Table Runner
July - Crafty Cravings Placemat
September - Autumn Abundance Placemat & Autumn Abundance Table Runner
October - Sumi-e Embroidered Placemat
November  - Give Thanks Pocket Placemat
December  - Rudolph's Run Placemat & Rudolph's Run Table Runner

To begin, we will prepare the fabric for the embroidered blocks. Using an air-erase pen (or other marking tool), draw a 6 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch square on the solid-colored quilter's cotton -- leave a couple of inches of excess fabric around the shape. Measure and mark the center of each side of the shape by measuring and dividing by two. Draw lines to connect the marks. Where the lines meet is the exact center of the shape.

Create a paper template of the design by printing it at full size using embroidery software. If you don't have embroidery software, you can cut a piece of paper the shape and dimensions of the design to help with placement and centering. If you'd like a recommendation for an embroidery program that can make templates, consider Embird from www.Embird.com.

Poke a hole in the center of the template and align it with the center point on the fabric. Make sure the design fits well within the shape -- there should be at least one inch of space between the edges of the design and the edges of the shape.

Spray a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive and smooth the fabric on top. Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together by aligning the marks on the hoop with the lines on the fabric. Attach the hoop to the machine and load the first design. Move the hoop so that the needle is aligned with the center point on the fabric. Embroider the design.

After the design has finished, trim away the excess stabilizer on the back of the embroidery.

Cut out the shape. Repeat the hooping and embroidering process for the remaining embroidered blocks. We embroidered a total of two blocks.

Next, we'll prepare the pattern piece for the top pieces of the dog house blocks. Draw a 3 1/2 inch wide by 2 3/4 inch high rectangle on a small piece of paper or tag board. Measure and mark down 3/8 inch on the left side starting at the top left corner. Also, measure and mark in 3/8 inch on the bottom edge starting at the bottom right corner.

Draw a line to connect the marks.

Cut out the shape along the line you just drew, and the lines above it.

Trace the shape onto the fabric -- this is the right side piece. Flip the pattern piece over and trace the shape again -- this is the left side piece.

Cut out the shapes.

To prepare the roof pieces, draw a 4 inch wide by 3 inch high rectangle on the fabric. Cut out the shape, and then cut the rectangle in half on the diagonal between the upper left corner and the bottom right corner -- the bottom piece is the right side piece. Cut another piece 4 inches wide by 3 inches high and cut it on the diagonal between the upper right corner and the lower left corner -- the bottom piece is the left side piece (save the top pieces for another dog house block, or discard them if you want to use a different print).

Align the long sides of the top pieces with the long sides of the roof pieces (left side pieces together and right side pieces together) right sides facing, and pin in place. Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the long sides only.

Press the back seams open with an iron.

Align the assembled left and right pieces together. Align the seams, pin in place, and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the short side where the roof print meets.  Press the seam.

To prepare the fabric for the house and side pieces, cut a 4 1/2 inch wide by 3 1/2 inch high piece for the house and two 1 1/2 inch wide by 3 1/2 inch high pieces for the sides. Align the side pieces with the sides of the house piece with right sides facing. Pin in place and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned side edges only. Press the seams.

To prepare the bottom piece, cut a 6 1/2 inch wide by 1 1/4 inch high piece. Align the piece with the bottom edge of the assembled house/side piece with right sides facing. Pin in place, and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the bottom edge only and press the seam.

Align the assembled top/roof piece along the top edge of the house piece with right sides facing. Pin in place, and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the top edge. Press the seam.

To prepare the door fabric, cut a 1 1/2 inch wide by 2 inch high piece of felt. Round off the top edge by trimming the two top corners. Then, pin the piece in the center of the house piece aligning it with the bottom edge. Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the edge of the piece.

Repeat this process for the remaining dog house blocks. We pieced a total of two blocks.

To prepare the pawprint blocks, print the pawprint pattern by clicking here. The pattern will print on one piece of paper.

Trim around the outer edges of the pattern piece, spray the back with a quick shot of temporary adhesive, and smooth it on top of the felt. Then, smooth the felt/pattern piece on top of the double-sided fusible web.

Cut out the pieces and peel off the pattern paper from the top, and the fusible web paper from the bottom. Cut a piece of print quilter's cotton 6 1/2 inches wide by 6 1/2 inches high. Place the pawprint pieces on top of the fabric centering it on the fabric by measuring equal distances side to side and top to bottom (from the outer edges of the paw print pieces and the edges of the fabric). Press the pieces in place with an iron -- follow the manufacturer's instructions on the fusible web packaging. Use a pressing cloth on top of the felt to prevent it from melting, or turn the fabric over and press it from the back.

Sew a 1/4 inch seam around each of the pawprint pieces.

Repeat this process for the remaining paw print blocks. We prepared a total of two blocks.

Now that all of the blocks are complete, it is time to assemble the placemat.

Arrange the blocks how you want them. Then, align the bottom blocks with the top blocks with right sides facing. Pin in place, sew a 1/4 inch seam along the bottom edge, and press the seams.

Then, align the assembled left blocks with the center blocks with right sides facing. Align the seams and pin in place along the outer edges.

Align the right blocks with the center blocks with right sides facing. Align the seams and pin in place along the outer edges. Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the outer edges and press the seams.

To prepare the fabric for the side borders, cut two pieces of fabric 2 inches wide by 12 1/4 inches high. Align the side pieces with the side edges of the assembled front panel with right sides facing. Pin in place and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned edges. Press the seams.

To prepare the fabric for the top and bottom borders, cut two pieces of fabric 21 1/2 inches wide by 2 inches high. Align the top and bottom pieces with the top and bottom edges of the assembled front panel. With right sides facing, pin, and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the pinned edges. Press the seams.

To prepare the fabric for the back of the placemat, lay the assembled front panel on top of the fabric, pin, and cut out the shape. 

Also, cut a piece of the batting just as you did for the back. Lay the batting flat and align the back fabric on top with the right side facing up. Align the front panel on top of the back fabric with the right sides facing (wrong side of the front panel faces up). Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the top, bottom, and one side edge -- leave the other side edge open for turning.

Turn the placemat right side out between the front and back panels (the batting will end up inside the placemat), and press the seams. Also, turn the fabric of the opening in 1/4 inch and press. Hand-sew the opening closed with a needle and thread.

With nylon monofilament in the needle and matching thread in the bobbin (thread that matches the back fabric), quilt through all the layers by stitching along the existing seams of the front panel.

Your pawsitively perfect placemat is now complete. Dress up your kitchen with an entire set of these dog-gone fun placemats!