Fireworks Table Topper

Materials:

• 1-1/2 yards fabric for back and front
• fat quarters of four different 4th of July themed/colored fabrics
• 2-1/2 yards bias tape
• fusible felt
• Steam-A-Seam 2
• firecracker pattern found here
• table mat pattern found here
• coordinating thread

Instructions:

1. Print the patterns and cut them out. To make the patterns actual size, use newspaper. For the top/bottom pattern, use a folded piece of newspaper.
   
   
    
2. Fold the top right corner down to the bottom left corner and crease.
   
   
    
3. Do this one more time.
   
   
    
4. Place the fold edge of the printed pattern along the solid fold of the newspaper. Trace the top curve of the pattern and cut along that line.
   
   
   
   
    
5. Open up and it should look like this:
   
   
    
6. Fold top/bottom fabric with cut edges meeting so you'll have a double layer big enough for the pattern. Pin the pattern on and cut out.
   
   
    
7. Trace 4 firecracker bodies and 4 firecracker tops onto one side of Steam-A-Seam 2 and fuse to the wrong side of the 4th of July themed/colored fabrics. Cut out, remove the backing paper, and arrange on the table mat front as shown below. Fuse to the front.
   
   
    
8. Finish the edges by sewing with a blanket stitch or machine zigzag stitching around - I used a .2 length and 3.5 width. Add fuses to the bottom of each firecracker.
   
   
    
9. Cut one piece of fusible felt using the table mat pattern and fuse to the back of the front piece. Layer these two fused pieces with the backing piece, pin, and quilt. I used free motion quilting.
   
   
    
10. Use one of your machine's automatic stitches to add star-like fire below the fuses - on the Brother, this is stitch 24. You can also do this by hand, sewing six-sided stars with straight stitches that cross each other as in the example below.
    
    
     
11. Using the same stitch, sew lines of fireworks going off and add single stars. I did the single stars with the same stitch, sewing slowly and just stopping when one star was completed.
    
    
    
    
    
    
     
12. Finish the edges with bias tape.