I was lucky enough to go to quilt market this spring. Where I was also lucky enough to get to chat with the lovely people at the Liberty Art Fabrics booth, check out their new Lifestyle line, and was given a swatch pack of the new collection. Each square of fabric is about the size of a charm square. Because of the that I had to come up with something that would make the most of each piece. Also, it's such a pretty line that I wanted to come up with a project that I could look at or use on a regular basis.

I went with a set of napkins. We go through napkins like crazy, but most cloth napkins are so big that the kids end up sliding them on to their spaghetti when they try to wipe their mouth. I think these might qualify as more of a cocktail size, but they work perfect for us.

I started with a 10" square of a linen cotton blend from the yards of french general that I hoard in my stash and then trimmed that with strips of liberty lifestyle. If I would have been working with yardage, I probably would have attached the binding just like I do on a quilt. But, I was working with smaller pieces, so I tried to get as much as I could out of the strips.

First I grouped them by colorway and cut two 2" strips from each swatch.

Then I stitched each colorway end to end so I had 8 strips (2 strips of each print)

I pressed in each edge 1/4" and pressed each strip in half.

I pinned the binding around each fabric square.

When I got to a corner

I made sure the crease in the binding butted up to the fabric square.

Once the edges were lined up,

I pulled the binding down to the crease and formed the angle.

Then I pulled down the back edge,

and double checked to make sure the back lined up as well.

Then I pinned the corner.

When I made it around the square, I marked where I wanted seam to be with a pin in each strip.

I matched them up right sides together, being careful not to twist the strips. Once the seam was stitched,

I pressed it open and then pressed the binding in half and pinned it.

I found a zig zag stitch to be more forgiving when it came to catching the back of the binding.

At the corners, I went half way in to the corner, backstitched to the edge, and then with my needle down, I turned the napkin and stitched down the next edge.

Lulu has already claimed the blue ones, the spouse really likes the brown print.

Actually I really like the browns too. They remind me of a dress and pinafore that my mom made me way back when in the '70's - it was very little house on the prairie chic.

Sounds like liberty lifestyle will be hitting stores this fall so that gives me just enough time to plan a quilt with it, maybe something inspired by little house on the prairie chic. It's about time for it to come around again.