Teri's Eat Placemats

In April 2009, my friend Teri's condo caught fire. Thankfully, she was not at home and no one was harmed.  An adjoining condo had an electrical fire that spread through the third floor attic to neighboring units. Between the fire, the smoke, and the water used to put out the fire, 6 units were destroyed.  Gone were her furniture, linens, wardrobe,  many personal items, and most home decor. Saved were a few mementos and most of her kitchen ware (pots, pants, dishes, etc.).

Her condo was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up. The dispute of the 5 insurance companies involved caused major delays in rebuilding, but finally, after 2 years of living in a furnished apartment, she is moved in to her brand new condo filled with new belongings!  I recently got my first peek at her new digs and it's gorgeous! 

To celebrate, I wanted to give her something handmade.  

One of the momentos that survived the fire were wooden letters - similar to these.  She has them perched on the bar which makes them visible from both the dining room and the kitchen. TAE are her initials, so when you look at the them from the backside, it looks like EAT. Clever, eh?  As soon as I realized the play on words, I knew I wanted to create something EAT inspired. Teri is an amazing cook and lost her linens in the fire, so placemats seemed a perfect idea.

To coordinate with her color scheme, the placemats are black and tan. The front side is black pinwale corduroy with tan letters and the back side is a fun dot with tan dots on black background.

Want to make some EAT placemats your own? Get the free tutorial pattern here.  Have another idea for using my EAT applique? Get just the EAT word template here.