Christmas Table Runner

Well, I've torn myself away from my basement enclave to bring you a second finish for this week!  This is one of the projects on my Q2 FAL list at On the Windy Side.

I actually had the hand quilting finished last weekend, but this week's posts had to do with the New Bloggers Hop and Cheryl's Grande Scrappy Tiles pattern launch, and so the binding didn't get finished hand-sewing down until yesterday!

This past week in quilting blogland I've seen no less than two others, so 3 counting my own, decades-old projects finally finished.  First, I saw some cute baskets that Wendy (she's hilarious) started 26 years ago and finished this week over at The Crafter's Apprentice, and second, I saw a beautiful honeymoon quilt finish by Bernie, the fabric for which was purchased on said honeymoon 17 years ago!  So I am in good company showing this finally finished project which I started in 1998 or 99, so 16 or 17 years ago.

Here you can see the pointed end of the runner...as well as the banana plants and elephant ears. I'm curious to see the change in them in a couple of months

And, who knew, but it's an original design!  Here I thought I had something new going over the past year with the creative bursts of inspiration -- I'm doodling and sketching and sewing and publishing (eeek- see the Moda Bakeshop button on the sidebar, still excited about that).  Apparently this designing thing has been in me and into fabric for longer than I realize.

I love star blocks.  They are my favourite.  So I put three different ones all within one table runner and set them on point.

Evening or Sawtooth Star

Rising Star

Ohio Star

I bought all the fabric except for the backing at my LQS at the time, Lori's Country Cottage.  I love the Old World Santas fabric.  However, it does not show the hand-quilting off very well, and it was really difficult to find a marker that would show the lines I marked, so I just marked small sections at a time.  I did a simple cable there.  The straight lines in the dark green (which has pretty cool shading, no?) were done right around the start of the new millenium.  Can you believe that's over 15 years ago now?!

I won't win any awards for 20 stitches to the inch; I bet I maybe have 6-8, and that's not consistently!  Still, it is done, the first entirely hand-quilted piece I've done.  Here is the back:

Although I still have some of each of the fabrics used within the runner, I didn't have enough of any of them for the binding.  Happily I had almost a full fat quarter of this red with crowns on that I thought worked really well with the other gold-flecked fabrics.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: original design
Size:  60"X23.75"
Fabric: I don't know because I have none left with selvages on!
Backing: cotton purchased at Fabricland
Batting: 100% cotton purchased at my LQS specifically for hand quilting, but I don't know the brand
Quilted: by hand by me
Threads: Gutermann hand quilting cotton

Another project I completed this week is recovering the top for my cedar hope chest, a gift from my parents for my 18th birthday. (ya now that baby is decades old, but we won't go there!)

Here is the before:

Yep that grouse fabric just wore right out...darn, right?!

And here is what it looks like now!

Bella approves!

This fabric is from fabric.com, bought this past winter. I thought it was quilting weight cotton, but it is somewhere between that and canvas.  I thought maybe I'd still use it for fabric baskets, a bag, or cushion covers...and then a few days ago, it hit me!  Did I have enough? Yep, if I pieced two 2.5" strips on the long sides, it would be perfect.  With my husband on the super whack-master staple gun, and me on the stretching and positioning of fabric, we did it.  Awww, yeah!  I love it.

If you are observant, you'll have noticed Summer Scents Mosaic is on our bed. :-)

We slept under it last night and it was great! It washed up just wonderfully, no shrinkage other than the usual with cotton fabrics.  So the key to using flannelette or flannel as batting is to wash and dry it in the dryer before layering and quilting.  I might have found out the hard way what happens when one does not do this...
Linking up with Pet Project Saturday at Pink Doxies.

Coming Down...

off the high that was my Dot to Dot class with Angela Walters. 

All right, LOOK what my computer took me to when I went to get the URL to paste for her name!!

February 25.  I met Anna, my neighbour who lived across the street from us in Florida, a day or two after I wrote this.  I knew she was a quilter, a young one, but little did I know that I already had met her, on two other occasions last year! She worked part time at Alma Sue's and was a member of the Sarasota Guild.  She is the one who told me that the guild was bringing in Angela; had I not finally gone over to introduce myself, I might not have found out about Angela being here, certainly not in enough time to be able to get into the only one of her four classes that still had space. Sadly for me, Anna moved back to her hometown in northern Florida February 28.  Happily, however, for me, I was able to get into the Dot to Dot class a few days later!  Incidentally, Angela's post where I wrote this comment is well worth a read/watch.  More than once.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...er trunk show and class...

Not only did I have to remind myself to close my slack jaw in class when viewing her slide show, but I also had to make a supreme effort to swallow frequently; otherwise the drool would drip onto her beautiful quilts that we were allowed to touch, handle, hold, photograph, all to our heart's content.

Recognize the fabric? "Textures" -- look at the header of my blog! And yep, those are my legs, my fingers, holding (and before and after petting) her quilt.

And THEN, there was meeting Angela, on Monday night at the guild meeting for the first time, eyes brimming with emotion as I tried (inadequately) to find words to tell her how much all her free videos and demos online, how much every single Craftsy class of hers has helped me, beyond measure, on my Avanté, but also has helped me grow in machine quilting on my Bernina.  Going back Tuesday morning for another 3 hours with this warm, funny, ("My husband says I'm not funny.  But I think I'm frickin' hilarious. Sarcasm is my love language!" ) humble, genuine, inspiring, creative, and so-very-talented quilter was such a treat.

The chocolate says "Quilting is My Therapy", and yep I saved it, knowing I wanted a picture for my blog--I ate it after the pic, dark chocolate! But of course, she has taste.

She is very wise.  To fully round out my dorking out over her, geek that I am and always have been where school and education are concerned, I took notes, furiously scribbling to try to get it all down, even videoed segments of her instruction.

"There is no such thing as imperfection in FMQ.  You just need to know how to fix them. " (the mistakes) She talked about the eye needing to see symmetry, and that symmetry is basically all it looks for, so "if you make a mistake, do it twice and then it's a design element!"

I planned to rip this out as I messed up one of the "dots" to hit.

Now, however, I'm thinking if I do something symmetrical on either side of this "mountain" it could look kind of cool.  I need to get crackin' as these are my ALYOF April goal.

Kinda cool here too, no?

Although I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I thought I would, my brain was totally full of information and inspiration.  She talked, gave you theory and practical tips and answered questions, then showed you slides and her quilts and gave further clarification and ways to use particular designs, and then gave you 15 or so minutes out of each hour to practice the technique on your sample.  Each hour was broken down in a similar fashion to the Craftsy class: squares, triangles and then borders in the final hour.

Rest assured there will be more Angela wisdom forthcoming.

The trip home was uneventful.  The dogwoods didn't disappoint, although there seemed less of them in Kentucky and Ohio than I saw last year through the Carolinas and West Virginia.

Ohio

On the trip, I actually got a fair bit done on the last border of my runner.  I have about 10 more double-rows of the serpentine shape left to quilt.

The little bag I made back in January came in so handy for my handquilting tools!  Below you can see my favourite plastic open-backed thimble that allows your nail to be free.  The condom-looking thing is a finger from a latex glove which I use to grab the needle to pull it through when 3-4 stitches are loaded onto it.

I'm using Gutermann quilting thread, and the Clover chalk pencil Angela uses (learned about these in one of her Craftsy classes).  That pencil is better on the Old World Santa fabric than the Bohin one.  There is too much white in the fabric; the streaks wreak havoc with my eyes, so I need a thicker line.  The plastic serpentine shape is my template for marking the woven curves border design.

And so there you have it, the first post back on good old Canadian soil.  Mmmm.  Even though said soil is a little darn cold for this time of year!  Still, I think Spring is about to surpass Summer in my favourite season list.  I was musing this morning (didn't get this finished last night, TOO tired after a 5 am start to the day--Mysore yoga!) that no matter whether one is living in 90F steamy tropical heat (Gulf, beaches, cicadas, palm trees), the tundra (pure white snow, frozen lakes, polar bears), or the desert (sand dunes, endless blue skies, meerkats(!!)) Mother Nature gives us something upon which our senses can feast, and our creative juices can start to burble.

These swans literally took my breath away last night on the way to teaching yoga.  I pulled over, got out of the car, crossed the road, tiptoed into the grass, but not before this pair had pulled apart...oh my GOD, but they were in the necks intertwined, facing each other, classic swan pose.  That vision will stay with me forever.

A group of about 25 more were just past these two lovebirds

Rocco is happy; he has made a new friend.  This is Charlie, an 8-month-old Scottie.  He is adorable, although a bit rambunctious.  Good thing Rocco is so tolerant.  Charlie's 'mum' wants me to knock on her door and walk with them sometimes so Rocco can help teach Charlie some manners! They've recently retired here from Vancouver, and live just up the street.

Meet and greet

One for the Guild Boutique!

Got 'er done not too long ago!  Sorry the pics are taken inside.

Here are the three different threads I used, grey Isacord, a yellow Sulky rayon, and Heirloom fine cotton.  All went through the Avanté like a dream with no tension adjustments!!  How I love this machine.

For the dot-to-dot diamonds in the four yellow corner squares, I used the blue ruler that Angela Walters uses with a little more success than the last time, so that makes me happy.  I guess it will take a lot of practice, as most skills do, right?!  I was happy to use one of the designs we learned in her Dot to Dot Quilting class on Craftsy.  I stitched in the ditch for the yellow triangle sections and then echoed that with a wavy line.

Here is it on the Avanté:

Love that corner design, one I learned in Dot To Dot Quilting

I knew right away that I wanted to fill the star with a swirl design, as the quilt is all sharp angles.  It was fun and I love how it turned out, even though my swirls have room for improvement!  When I'm quilting it, I'm thinking, "Oh no....oops...eeek...where to next....relax your shoulders..." but overall impression is pretty decent, so it is a forgiving filler!

In the grey area, I did a loopy meander with a five-pointed crazy star.

The back with the label as a part of the backing.  Nothing fancy, just a rail fence block.  I called the quilt "Offset Star."  I used up all of that pale yellow for the backing and cut up the marginal remainder into six 2 1/2" squares.  One more piece off the fabric shelves!

Full back view.  I machine-stitched the binding down for this one.  I rarely do that as I'm not too good at it (but on this one I only had to go back into one spot that I missed catching it, so I'm improving), but I prefer the look of the hand-stitched binding, and I do enjoy that part of the process too!

Love all that texture

And the race to get the runner handquilted?  Slo-o-o-w process.  I'm doing a "simple" (cough) cable in the border.  I'm probably doing the marking and the quilting process all wrong, but too bad, as it's not going in any show or contest!!  Here's what I did this morning:

Bottom edge is quilted using a different process than the side edge...but they are both going to turn out the same...I hope!

Hard to see I know.  I made a plastic template for the "snake" section with registration marks.  Used the Clover pink chalk pencil as I could not see the Bohin one well enough.  (The cable design is between the two marking pencils in the photo below.)  Then I got all confused as to which line I was quilting, as the outside top line of one oval becomes the inside bottom line of the next.  And then I realized that the ovals in the design are not identical!  Are you kidding me?  So I made an "eye" template for the inside oval.  Cut it out of a little paper (hi-tech stuff here I tell you) and made a registration mark for the next "eye" so I can space them apart properly.  This design is out of a book I got from Joe for Christmas in 2000: Quilting Patterns by Linda Macho.

I love that thimble!

I drew them on the opposite border edge and quilted those.  Yep.  I'm going to continue with this "eye" method.  But I'll make a template out of the template plastic now that I know it works.  Then I can mark the "snake" lines after and all the eyes will be the same size and shape (with any luck)!!

Speaking of luck, I'll need a ton of it to get this done in time for that draw!

Nearly forgot:  the dogs have joined me for the past two days downstairs (they prefer being upstairs, to keep tabs on the pesky squirrels).  Naala was in a goofy mood today:

She lay like that for several minutes!!  Silly girl.

And another one down...

in the hand-quilted tablerunner I'm trying to get finished for Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I took this picture outside yesterday afternoon so it is in much better lighting than last night's.  I have 3 star blocks in this runner, and I've finished quilting two.

This is the centre star block, a star in a star--is it called Rising Star?

So this afternoon, another absolutely picture-perfect day of clear blue skies and warm smiling sun, I sat outside and quilted this last block so I could get another daytime picture.

I'm pretty sure this is called Evening Star

The "rays" that I quilted in the ivory triangles just happened.  I'd thought about maybe doing a small triangle inside that triangle, but worried I wouldn't get them all the same size, or perfectly centred.  So I thought, why not just split the triangle in 3, doing 3 lines of quilting, and after I'd got the first 2 done in the centre block, I saw that it looked like rays!  Love it.

So, just the outside border to do now, and I think I'm going to do a simple cable there as the fabric is just so wonderful that I don't want to detract from it.  I actually cannot believe I can see the light at the end of the tunnel to finishing this runner after leaving it sit for so many, many years.  And, it comes as a bit of a shock, but I really love hand-quilting, outside of my very sore left hand pointer and third finger...  However, diaper rash cream to the rescue!

Yep, it's been 25+ years since I've needed it for my babies, but I still buy my fave brand, Penaten, for burns, blisters, splits in fingers or toes, rough calluses, and now, for my two fingers, and it's eased the "ouch" remarkably well already.

What else was I doing this weekend?

I've had this quilt from Sarah's post of Confessions of A Fabric Addict, one of the first quilt blogs I followed with Bloglovin' about Hands2Help on my brain all weekend, so last night, I dug through my almost non-existent greys, and started cutting 4 1/2" squares.  I plan to do another using 6 1/2" squares for a baby quilt.  This first one could be a small baby quilt or a wallhanging.  I plan to give it to our Guild's Boutique for the fundraiser at our quilt show this September.  The best part?  It's all from my scraps and stash!  Love that.

Here it is on the design wall tonight:

I'd hoped to get it pieced before I posted this, but life has happened since supper. . .   I've got the first two columns pieced à la my "Book It!" method.  I'm hoping to link up with Sarah if I'm not too late, for my first linky to her "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?"


Remember to visit The Bloggers' Quilt Festival!  I have two quilts entered there for the first time.  I'm really starting to have my eyes opened by this huge world of Quilting Blogland, and I'm just loving it!!  So much to do, so many like-minded supportive people, and SO MANY ideas!!!  My two quilts are Seaside Rose, entered into the Large Quilts Category....

Seaside Rose was posted about here and here and here and here, good grief, and here!  She was a lengthy, but oh-so-worth-it creation.

and Hidden in Plaid Sight, entered into the Original Design Category.  There are 650 quilts in all of the categories, and there are some absolutely stunning beauties.
Hidden in Plaid Sight was posted about here and here!

Click the "here" links to read about the two quilts.  The first "here" is the contest entry post that summarizes the quilt.  Click the hot-linked categories in the paragraph above to go directly to the voting page.  You might have to scroll through the many(and get side-tracked!!)  beautiful quilts entered.

Progress, Albeit Slow

I did some more hand-quilting today on my UFO.  Here is one of the three blocks DONE!!  I have to stop waiting so long between hand-quilting marathons.  I build up a callous on my underneath third finger that catches the point of the needle and sends it back up, and then I don't quilt for a few weeks.  Back to square one.  Ouch.

Don't look too closely, as there is a lot of variance in stitch size, sigh.  The four corners were going to just have a square in a square but the middle still poofed up too much, so I quilted the straight lines through each inner square.

Notice anything??

My menopausal LACK of functioning brain cells strikes yet again, ugh.  I had just finished the third of the four corner squares when I realized that on two of the square-in-a-squares, I'd rotated the straight lines running through the inner square.  Are you kidding me?  Rather than rip it out, I repeated the odd one so that I have two of each.

This is my project for Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes so I only have a week to get 'er done!  Two more blocks to fill in details like this, and then the border.

Remember to check out the Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  Voting begins tomorrow!  Apparently there are about 650 quilt all told in the festival, so a TON of eye candy and ogling to be had. 

Another Link-up...

...that I hope will ensure I get some more old projects out of storage and onto beds or walls!  It was really motivating just to blog about those I took with me to Florida, and watch the real progress I made getting through eleven of the 26!

I was on Quilting is More Fun Than Housework last night, and Cynthia led me to Sew BitterSweet Designs where I found this cool "A Lovely Year of Finishes".  Great idea.  So, I am going to join in and continue slogging sailing through more of my UFOs.

Here is mine for May:

I am embarrassed to contemplate how old this runner is.  Sigh.  I designed the runner (I just realized that right now!) using three different star blocks.  I LOVE stars to this day.  Yep, (choke) it was supposed to go on our wooden coffee table in the house we lived in pre-1999.  Egad.  I lost interest in handquilting once I took a free-motion quilting class at my then LQS, Lori's Country Cottage.

This is the shop that started me on my quilting journey, way back in 1994.  Hey! And they were featured in Better Homes and Gardens' Quilt Sampler in May 2012!!  Pretty cool.  Also cool is the look of my stitching!  It isn't teeny-tiny, but it still looks nice.  I did work on it a fair bit this past winter, but did not finish it.  The border needs to be quilted, as do some of the background squares in the star blocks, because I think they are too poofy and the quilting lines too far apart.  I was thinking of doing a square inside the square I've already quilted and some radiating lines  in the triangles, similar to what Joanne is doing in the red triangles on her gorgeous quilt.

Here is the back.

While working on it over the winter in Florida, I rediscovered my love for handquilting, and really, handwork of most kinds. (not so much appliqué, snort)  Hope to have this done and bound for the end of May link-up!

Random pics:  (sorry they're from my iPhone)
This is what is left of that green fabric!  Killed it!  And this will get cut up into two 11" strips for another one of Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza quilts.  Love it.

Cat's IN the bag

Funny thing is that is my Laurel Burch cat fabric bag!  Rocco didn't know what to make of her sitting in there like a princess. WHY do all cats love to curl up in bags?  Or on top of a shelf of t-shirts or sweaters in a closet, and then several hours later, when you freak because you haven't seen her in some time, you hear a faint "mew" and the hunt begins... which drawer?  cupboard? closet?

I am just making it by the deadline (May 1-7) for my first link-up with Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes!  And I'm heading out for supper with in-laws, but afterwards I am stopping in at Chapters to pick up the May 2014 issue of Quilt Sampler with my gift card!  :-)

I'm Still Here

I don't have anything finished yet, but I thought I drop a few pics of what I've been up to:

I'm still plugging away at the handquilting on my runner.  I'm really, really enjoying it, despite my poor up-close eyesight these days (yep, wearing two pairs of glasses at the same time, sigh), and my sore pointer from the finger underneath the quilt that gets stabbed with each stitch.

I'm also planning the last of the charm square quilts (and I had a waking dream about the design for this last charm quilt, which excites me to no end!)  Unfortunately, the ivory fabric I want to use is in Kingsville, so this will get started here, and then finished back home.  It's a challenge as there are only 32 squares, 30 in the pack, and I had two leftover from the first one I did.

My self round robin you see peeking at the bottom of that pic is no further than when Dayna was here, but I have narrowed the appliqué pattern down to two ideas.  Am I procrastinating?  Uh, a little.  It's that "I hope I make the right decision, gee, I don't know, ew, I don't want to trace all those shapes onto Steam-a-Seam, will it be wrong to machine-appliqué if the centre is so beautifully hand-appliquéd?" stage.

I also have been really enjoying machine-quilting "Hidden in Plaid Sight".

Yesterday and today I did some more lessons online in Angela Walters' "Dot to Dot Quilting" class on Craftsy and I am just LOVING this class every bit as much as her Free Motion Feathers one.  Worth every cent.  I also have her Machine Quilting Negative Space class too, and can't wait to get started on that.

I must confess that I have spent more than the usual amount of time over the past couple of days, reverse-sewing, sigh.  Unpicking machine-quilted stitches is no picnic.  Neither is getting the window fixed in my sewing room so that it opens without having to be propped open with the can of QBS (who knew that can would have a dual purpose of 'holding'? LOL), only to discover, after I happily opened it, those 4-patches of charm squares mostly blown off!!!  One of the few times I hadn't taken a picture of the arrangement...BIG sigh.  I even unpicked hand-quilted stitches in the red zinger.  I'd quilted a couple of feet about 1/8" away from the seam, but decided it looked weird, so unpicked it all (easy, just heartbreaking to think of the lost time that it took to stitch) and re-quilted in the ditch.  I like it much better, so it was worth it.

Yesterday we spent a few hours kayaking in the Robinson Preserve, along the canals and into Perico Bay.  Just heavenly, so serene and calm.

I'm also reading a new author, Jo Nesbø.  It's The Redbreast, and is very good so far, intriguing, has me thinking on it as I sew.  Hope to have some finishes shortly!