Fishy on a dishy

I made more mats!  About three years ago I made a mat to put pans on (here) - well now it has eight cousins to go on the dining table.



These are made with a top layer of linen (actually some napkins I bought and chopped up), a middle layer of quilt wadding, and a cotton backing.  Each fish outline is machine stitched, and the spots (Kona solids) added by applique-ing and free-motion machine embroidery.



Creating the fish was the first step, stitching through both the linen and the wadding.  Then I stitched the backing on (right sides together), turned through, and stitched around the edge making a 1cm border.  Such a simple process, I can't imagine why it took me 12 months to finish them!



As before, I must credit Syko for inspiring this fish design, but I hope I have added something here!  Each fish has different coloured spots, two of one colour plus two other colours.  The white thread is a thick top-stitching type for extra definition.



Vicky xx