Charming and oh-so handy!

The time we spend at the sewing machine is somewhat sacred – thoughtfully and often lovingly creating something wonderful stitch by stitch. It’s our time to let our creativity and inspiration run, and to enjoy the space we create by diving into our craft.

If you’re like almost every quilter and sewist out there, when you’re in that space and ready to sit down to really immerse yourself in your project the last thing you want to do is continuously hop up and hunt around for your tools and accessories. Am I right?

Enter this sweet and so very useful sewing mat! Every sewist and quilter will love having something so handy at their fingertips that can be placed right under your sewing machine.

With so many pockets perfectly placed right in front of you, you can store your scissors, rotary cutter, thread, wonder clips… whatever you need for your project. This incredibly useful sewing accessory also has the fun addition of a little thread catcher where you can place any snippets of thread that you’ve cut from your work. It also clips on and off so that you can easily empty it.

For my sewing mat I used the white Clothe Pattern fabric from the MORE PAPER collection. Its theme goes so perfectly with this project! And, of course, because its colors and patterns are so diverse and versatile and fun to pair with other fabrics, I’ve also used fabrics from my most recent JUST RED series.

Get the free tutorial here at Polkadot Chair

This sewing mat was sewn by Christina Otte…

Find her on Instagram @minervahuhn

And now on to this week’s Block for our year-long sew-along… Ready?

FREE QUILT ALONG BLOCKHEADS 2020
BLOCK #10
WINDMILLS

It’s time to see the next block in our Moda Blockheads 3 year-long sew-along! If you’ve been sewing along with us, stop by our Facebook community or Instagram using the hashtags #modablockheads and #modablockheads3 and share your blocks with us. A big part of the fun of Blockheads is the community and friendships that form over the course of the year, don’t miss out!

And if you’re just learning about the free block pattern we share each week for Moda Blockheads 3, you can get started any time. Simply go back through the last several blog posts to catch up, and be sure to check out this post to find out what fabrics you’ll need to create your own beautiful and unique sampler quilt using free block patterns from Moda designers each week.

You can also take a look back at Blockheads 2, our last Moda Blockheads adventure, to get an idea of what the excitement is all about.

This week’s block is brought to us by Stacy Iest Hsu. Stacy is one of Moda’s modern designers, and she’s well known for her fabric panels that can be used to create little puppets and cute dolls. Be sure to check out her creations along with this week’s free block pattern on her blog. Her block is called Windmills, and I made mine with earthy tones to match my color gradient. You can take a look at my emerging layout below!

Don't miss the other blockheads involved in this project:

Betsy Chutchian
Corey Yoder of Coriander Quilt
Janet Clare
Jan Patek
Jen Kingwell
Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree
Jo Morton
Laurie Simpson
Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings
Lissa Alexander of Moda
Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles
Me & My Sister Designs
Robin Pickens
Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life
Stacy Iest Hsu
Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique
Carrie Nelson

Stay tuned… Each week I’ll reveal more of my layout with the next block!

What would be your favorite tool or accessory to store in this sewing mat? Share with us in the comments below!