It’s Your Birthday Place Mat

This whimsical mat can be made with any fabric you choose. For a personal touch, make one for each family member in their favorite colors. Use cotton fabrics and batting and your place mat is machine washable.

Click image to download a PDF of “It's Your Birthday Place Mat Tutorial” by Kym Delmar

Materials

• Wide rickrack
• Narrow rickrack
• 5 patterned fabrics
• 1 solid yellow cotton fabric
• 3 solid cotton fabrics (color of your choice)
• Batting
• Thread

Tools

• Fray check
• Square ruler, or sheet of wax paper for template
• Standard sewing tools

Directions

1. Cut 4 ½” squares from four patterned cotton fabrics.



2. Cut 5” piece of wide rickrack for each square.



3. Cut 2 ½” x width of fabric (WOF) strip of solid cotton to use as borders for your package squares.



4. With right sides together, sandwich rickrack between the solid strip and the patterned square, lining up top and left edge as shown.



5. Stitch with ¼” seam.



6. Press seam flat from wrong side, then open gently with iron pressing seam toward strip.



7. Trim excess solid strip even with square.



8. Add another solid strip to the right side of square. Then stitch and press open as in Steps 5 and 6. Trim solid strip even with square as in Step 7.



9. Repeat for all four sides of square.



10. Using 6 ½” square ruler or template made from wax paper, center square at an angle. Check all four corners to make sure that they are not being cut off. Cut around all four edges with rotary cutter.



11. Cut 7” piece of narrow rickrack. Add fray check to each end.



12. Make two loops in narrow rickrack to form a bow shape (don’t really tie into a bow because it is too bulky). Stitch in place at top of package, above wide rickrack.



13. Make three more packages in the same way. IMPORTANT NOTE: On two of the packages, when you cut the square, tilt ruler in the opposite direction as shown.



14. Lay four package blocks as shown.



15. Flip rows right sides together and chain sew along right seam. Leave thread between rows intact.



16. Press sewn seams in opposite directions so that row seam will lock together.



17. Use a straight stitch down the center of rickrack to secure each package.



18. From leftover scraps of solid cottons, cut a strip of each fabric around the same length. Widths can vary.



19. Stitch these strips right sides together along long edges. I used a serger for speed, but a regular stitch would work fine. Press seams to one side.



20. Cross cut joined strips into 2” segments. Join enough of these segments along their short edges to cover bottom and top of tilted package section. Sew strip to top and bottom. Press seams toward packages.



21. Next, cut two solid pieces, 2” by 15” each. Stitch them to sides of place mat, press toward solid.



22. This is what the place mat looks like so far.



23. Cut one solid piece 8” x 4.75” for cake, two patterned strips 8” x 1.25” for side background pieces, one patterned piece 6.25” x 4.25” for top background, and one patterned piece 6.25” x 3.5” for cake base. Also cut a strip of wide rickrack 5” long.



24. Place rickrack about 1 ½” down from top of solid cake piece. With right sides together, stitch side background pieces to either side of solid cake piece, enclosing ends of rickrack in seam. With right sides together, stitch cake base piece to bottom of cake and side piece unit.



25. With right sides together, stitch cake base piece to bottom of cake and side piece unit.



26. Cut a rectangle of yellow solid for flame, approximately 3” x 6”.



27. Fold short ends to middle, and then fold in half. You will be cutting through four layers of fabric. Cut flame shape as shown. Stitch both flames together close to the edge, all the way around flame shape. Clip middle of one side with scissors, and turn right side out. Poke out edges and press.



28. Cut a 2” x 1” rectangle.



29. Fold long sides to middle. Lay out on background to check position, then sandwich between top background and cake piece right sides together and stitch. Press up, position flame on top, and topstitch around flame and candle to secure to background.



30. Sew cake section to rest of place mat.



31. Layer in the following order: batting, then backing and top right sides together. Stitch around place mat with a ½” seam, leaving an opening for turning. To avoid “dog ears,” take a stitch or two at an angle across each corner as shown.Trim seam and clip corners. Turn right side out.



32. Quilt as desired. I quilted in the ditch around the cake and present shapes, and did free motion quilting everywhere else. I’ve included some pictures of the front and back so that you can see the quilting.

Quilt a Birthday Place Mat The Saturday Evening Post

Como died a few months later at the age of 88 on May 12th, 2001—and a few days later, I received the photo back with his signature on it. So I probably have the last autograph of Perry Como’s life—not that anyone cares. I recently bought a signed Perry Como record contract for $48 on eBay, and the people who know me know to buy me Perry Como stuff for my birthday: both because I love him and because it’s a really, really affordable gift.

2012 marks the hundredth anniversary of Como’s birth, and I would bet anything that this piece might be the only mention of it in the media. But it’s high time for a re-examination of his legacy—and a rediscovery of one of the greatest and certainly the most underrated male singers of the Great American Songbook.

Indeed it was Perry Como’s success with the Ted Weems Orchestra that played a key role in inspiring Frank Sinatra to leave the Tommy Dorsey orchestra in 1942 and embark on a solo career. “Mr. Como was with Ted Weems, a then-popular orchestra leader, and he is still such a wonderful singer,” Sinatra said. “I thought if I don’t make a move out of this band and try to do it on my own soon, one of these guys will do it, and I’ll have to fight.”

If Frank Sinatra, a man known for many things—the ease with which he was intimidated not among them, felt threatened by the prospect of a Perry Como solo career, it’s worth a second look at his work.

That is where problems begin: the greatest enemy of Como’s legacy has been, paradoxically, his greatest successes. His biggest hits mainly consisted of faddish novelty songs: “Hot Diggity Dog (Ziggity Boom),” “Papa Loves Mambo,” “Hoop-De-Doo,” and “Kewpie Doll,” and melodramatic septuagenarian pabulum ballads like “Temptation,” “Prisoner of Love,” and “If,” and his improbable 1971 comeback “It’s Impossible.”

It’s tempting to blame Como for his willingness to sing poor material, but the truth is that nearly every popular vocalist of the era did the same thing. No one talks about “Mama Will Bark”—a duet that featured Sinatra singing with Dagmar and the sound effects of a dog—because it flopped and most disc jockeys played the B-side, “I’m a Fool to Want You,” instead. But the public responded best to Como’s worst songs, and his legacy has suffered for it.

But even on his worst songs—and especially on his better album cuts, the artistry and genius of the Perry Como style is evident. It is so smooth, not in the slick, self-conscious way that Dean Martin sang but in the understated, too confident to show off manner of a true pro. Como is the dancer who is so talented and practiced that it looks effortless, while lesser performers grunt, sweat and wail their way through shows.

But one of the best parts of the Perry Como experience is that you can listen knowing that he lived his life with the same mellow warmth of his music.

He was married to one woman, Roselle Como until her death in 1998. They were together for 65 years and adopted several children together. Como did no club appearances for 26 years—the prime of his career. Instead, he focused on his TV show, recordings, and family. A 1957 Look magazine cover story asked the question: “Perry Como: Is He Really Mr. Nice Guy?”

“It is pointed out that Como is the only TV performer with a price tag of more than a million dollars a year who has no enemies and no embarrassing eccentricities and whose personal life has always been unblemished by gossip,” reporter Joe McCarthy noted.

“I’m not relaxed, I’m just tired,” Como told him.

Como was one of 13 children born to Italian immigrants in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. His father worked as a laborer at a tin-plate factory for $35 per week. By the time Perry was 10 years old, he was getting up at 6:00 each day to sweep the floor at a barber shop on his way to school; after class, he returned to shine shoes, heat towels, and sharpen razors. He had his own chair as a barber by the age of 13, and was a major contributor to his family’s finances.

He left the hair business to embark on a singing career. When not making progress, he returned to the barbershop for several years before he was lured back into show business with the offer of his own radio show. When a reporter suspected that the “singing barber” story was an invention of a record-company marketing department, Como responded by giving the reporter a free haircut.

In the 1950s, Como hit his stride as one of the most popular television show hosts of his era. The Perry Como Show ran in various incarnations into the 1960s, while he continued to record occasional specials.

It was during The Perry Como Show period that he recorded a series of albums for RCA/Victor. With the TV show providing Como with a built-in audience and rock and roll bumping the traditional pop vocalists off the radio, there was less pressure to focus on hit singles, and the best-recorded work of Perry Como’s career emerged.

While Sinatra was recording the concept albums that marked the rebirth of his career, Como was scoring steady sellers with titles such as So Smooth, We Get Letters (1957), Saturday Night With Mr. C (1958), Como Swings (1959), and 1961’s Young at Heart. Como’s albums provide the laidback counterpart to Sinatra’s hip Las Vegas sound.

If I could pick one song that epitomizes the Perry Como style at its best, it would be “Gypsy in My Soul,” the eighth track on Saturday Night with Mr. C. With light orchestration, Como just rolls through the song: “If I am fancy-free and love to wander, it’s just a gypsy in my soul,” he sings, letting the last word drift off into two syllables. The enunciation is understated and lilting, and the result is a song that is almost impossible to listen to without smiling.

The almost completely forgotten ballad “Toselli’s Serenade” is another of Como’s best recordings, this one from 1966. It’s a sad song (Dreams and memories/Are all that you’ve left me/Only lonely thoughts/About the one I worship and adore) out dreams and regrets is the perfect treatment for it. Mario Lanza, generally regarded as a superior vocalist, belts it into a dramatic power ballad. But Como’s version is both more enjoyable and more in sync with the lyrics.

In a business where leaving a distinct mark on each song is seen as a key to success, Como’s understated, unselfconscious performances set him apart. Ironically, it may explain why he’s forgotten; his style has been supplanted by belters. “Once you know a song too well, you start to fool around with it.” he said. “At the session, when the band’s working on the arrangement, I learn the tune right there.”

Como’s onscreen presence matched his vocals. Though his movie career at MGM was unsuccessful (his most well-known film being 1945’s Doll Face with co-stars Vivian Blaine and Carmen Miranda), his laidback manner could not have been better suited to the early days of television. With a sound and presence inoffensive and warm, Como was exactly what people wanted in their living rooms.

A 1954 12-city poll of 20-year-old women by Life magazine found that Perry Como was the most popular choice for a potential spouse even though the magazine noted, he “does not fit all the requirements nor all of the personal characteristics girls rate high. He is 5 feet 9 1/2 inches tall instead of 6 feet. His eyes are brown instead of blue and he is not 23. He almost never washes dishes.”

“I was always relaxed on camera when I sang, mainly because I’m not very high-strung or animated by nature.” he told Good Housekeeping in a 1990 profile. “Acting coaches in Hollywood were always telling me to use my hands and body more. But that was never me. I just breathe and sometimes it doesn’t look as if I’m doing that.”

One of the more interesting The Perry Como Show clips available on YouTube is a 1961 duet with 13-year-old Brenda Lee, who had recently had a major hit with “I’m Sorry.” In the video, they sing a medley including “Teach Me Tonight” and “An Apple for the Teacher”—a hit for Bing Crosby, who was Como’s biggest influence along with the long forgotten Russ Columbo. Ms. Lee appears nervous and flubs several lyrics. Como then flubs one, too, something he was not known for doing and this was, perhaps, an effort to put her at ease. Como’s posture is slightly stooped, and his manner is paternal.

When he died, RCA Records took out a full-page ad in Billboard that said simply this: “50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all.”

Ultimately, Como’s unpretentious, warm, and light style was replaced, in some cases literally, by a more self-conscious, egocentric style of music and life: the building where he spent parts of two decades recording The Perry Como Show became Studio 54 and to the extent that he still gets any airplay at all, it comes during the holidays.

His recording of “Home for the Holidays” is still one of the more popular Christmas songs, although the less remarkable Andy Williams seems to be the crooner of choice for radio these days; Williams and Elvis Presley were the only artists to have two of the 25 Christmas songs with the most radio play in 2010, according to data from the monitoring service Mediaguide.

But Como likely wouldn’t care. An unabashed popular entertainer, he greeted his declining popularity the same way he greeted his rise to success. “I’ve done nothing that I can call exciting,” Como once said. “I was a barber. Since then I’ve been a singer. That’s it.”

On the 100th anniversary of Como’s birth, with the Great American Songbook enjoying a comeback thanks to singers like Michael Bublé and Rod Stewart, it’s time for fans of classic pop to give the best and nicest singer of the era another listen.

Why Perry Como Matters The Saturday Evening Post

Baby Carriage
By: Norman Rockwell
From May 20, 1916

It was a brush with destiny. A young artist named Norman Rockwell had a dream: to do a Saturday Evening Post cover. To this end, he showed a painting of a lovely ballerina to his buddy, Clyde Forsythe. His friend’s reaction: “C-R-U-D! Terrible. Awful. Hopeless.” Apparently, Forsythe was not one to mince words. Then Forsythe picked up one of the illustrations Rockwell had done for Boys’ Life magazine. “Do that,” he said. Do what you’re best at—kids.”

Following his friend’s suggestion, Rockwell was over the moon when “Baby Carriage” appeared as his first Post cover in 1916. He was twenty-two. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that lasted a remarkable 47 years and over 300 covers.

Celebrating Norman’s 84th birthday in 1978, the Saturday Evening Post collected a variety of quotes from celebrities:

Leapfrog
By: Norman Rockwell
From June 28, 1919

“A Norman Rockwell painting makes you feel happy and warm.” – Bob Hope

“When I was a boy, I used to deliver the Saturday Evening Post in our neighborhood on Long Island. With what joy and excitement I opened the bundles of magazines and studied each new Norman Rockwell cover. I’m so glad that the Post is honoring him on his 84th birthday and I would like to add my personal message to him, “Happy Birthday, Mr. Rockwell, all the way from the Aloha State.” – Jack Lord

“Norman Rockwell is timeless and without a doubt, universal. His warmth and humanity cover you like a winter quilt. Norman Rockwell celebrates life, and it is a wonderful feeling to help celebrate his.” – Henry Winkler

Rockwell Portrait
by Gene Boyer

In 1978 a “new Post cover artist,” Gene Boyer, wished Norman Rockwell happy birthday in his own special way with this portrait.

“For his openness, his goodness and honesty and intelligence, the world thanks him and wishes him a great birthday. He is a great man. And would be embarrassed to be so called.” – Ronald Reagan

“Norman Rockwell is, I think, the most thoroughly American artist of all. Historians a thousand years from now will be able to learn a great deal of what life was like in the United States in the 20th century from studying the warm, human impressions by an artist who obviously loved his subjects.” – Steve Allen

Gramps at the Plate
By: Norman Rockwell
From August 5, 1916

“Norman Rockwell’s name has become synonymous with a whole age of innocence in America, and his great paintings evoke in all of us a nostalgia for a simpler and happier time.” – Walter Cronkite

“Norman Rockwell has always had a way of staying in touch with the feelings and hearts of the American people. In this time of constant hunting by the news fraternity for the provocative, the thoughts and moods and illustrations of Norman are most welcome and refreshing.” – John Wayne

“Norman Rockwell is America’s greatest, and I wish my home was full of everything he ever painted. Love, Lucy.” – Lucille Ball

“Some of us grew up thinking that Uncle Sam’s real name was Norman Rockwell; I still do.” – Paul Harvey

Rockwell Painting Nasser

Happy Birthday, Norman Rockwell! The Saturday Evening Post

"Happy Birthday, Miss Jones"

"Happy Birthday, Miss Jones"
by Norman Rockwell
March 17, 1956

Rockwell arranged this “surprise” party for Miss Jones, of course. He posed the children in their seats and arranged the humble birthday gifts on the desk: an apple, an orange, a flower or two, and packages tied with string. I like the “Happy Birthday Jonesy” on the blackboard. Also the Rockwell details: an eraser and chalk dust on the floor indicate there was an eraser fight while waiting for the teacher to show up. The kid with the red shirt still has an eraser on his head.

But just as with the 1935 cover (below) of a teacher, Rockwell received complaints about how he portrayed teachers. Although a reader wrote that the artist captured “the full loving beauty of what is called ‘teaching’ in that sweet face,” another complained, why did he “make the schoolteacher so mousy looking”? Alas, even Norman Rockwell couldn’t please everyone.

"First Day of School"

"First Day of School"
by Norman Rockwell
September 14, 1935

Rockwell loved costumes such as these 1870s dresses, but moved away from that since people just didn’t care for these covers as they did the modern covers that depicted everyday life and dress. The artist felt that every schoolteacher in the country complained about how homely he made this schoolmarm. One must observe that the contrast with the friendly, pretty mother is significant. One might also think the teacher may seem a little eager to use that stick behind her back for any errant behavior. The pupil with his “boys-will-be-boys” bandage may have met his match.

"After School"

"After School"
by Norman Rockwell
October 27, 1917

Back in 1917, Rockwell painted a very attractive teacher. The boy has to stay after school and write, “Knowledge is Power” on the blackboard an infinite number of times for some misdeed. It appears the student has acquired some unintended knowledge. A suitor (notice the box of candy behind his back) calling on a schoolmistress was juicy stuff indeed.

"First in His Class"

"First in His Class"
by Norman Rockwell
June 6, 1926

Rockwell was not terribly fond of school himself, which was perhaps why he depicted this young scholar as a nerd. To have the schoolmaster drone on and on about your intellectual achievements? I suspect Rockwell would have preferred having to write something on the chalkboard a bazillion times.

Rockwell’s School Teachers The Saturday Evening Post