Penny Mats

I have been eyeing up this cute penny mat along with an adorable strawberry penny mat at my local fabric store for awhile, and finally last fall I broke down and bought a kit. Now being my first I had a few assumptions with were wrong(big surprise right?). I knew they did the sample at the store with a machine but I assumed it would be very quick to sew by hand. Now it didn't take me a long amount of time, but it did take me longer than I originally thought. I also assumed that penny mats were for dumping you pennies on, again, wrong! Penny mats were originally made of penny size scraps of leftover wools/fabrics. Even if they weren't penny shaped it did use up some wool scraps.

I also brushed up on my embroidery skills, the majority of the stitching was blanket stitching, but there was also some french knots for the eyes and lazy daisy stitches for the flowers. If you find yourself needing a refresher you tube has great videos for this. I also learned a nice trick, after mentioning to the fabric store owner, I was stitching on the sheep and finding it difficult to keep them flat since the pieces were too small to pin down, she suggested some fabric-tac. Hello! worked like a dream.

 Here is the backside, really pretty in whimsical way, but I covered it to prevent unraveling or catching of the threads.

Very sweet, I think, and I am ready to make another one. Starting with a kit for my first try was great and now I'm ready to design my own. I'm envisioning cherries or a hot rod for my guy to throw his pennies on!
Happy Sewing!
Kit: Buttermilk Basin August Penny Mat @ http://buttermilkbasin.com/
Supplies: The Cutting Edge Fabric and Craft Supply Shoppe LLC. 816 5th Ave. Antigo, WI 54409 715-623-3590