Table Runners

Last summer I won a major prize in a shop hop drawing -- ten yards of Hoffman Christmas fabrics. Nine different one-yard cuts, and one two-yard cut.  I have been making Christmas table runners, and I have just finished my third one.  Here they all are:

These are fun little projects that don't take too much time to do, and they look really nice too.

Wonder Clips

Like most Americans, I love a good bargain, and Last Friday was Black Friday, with deals galore!  I don't like the Black Friday crowds, so I do my bargain hunting online.  I made a few purchases, and in the mail today, my WONDER CLIPS arrived!  Perfect timing too, as I was just starting to bind my kaleidoscope quilt.  (Yes!  I finished quilting it!)  The wonder clips are great helps in getting the binding done FAST, and accurately.  They are not foolproof however, as I did fall off the binding in a couple of spots and had to hand sew about 3 inches on the back.  But I am VERY HAPPY with my new clips, and will never use a pin for binding again!

  

What I especially liked about these little clips is that I can remove them with one hand, unlike a pin which requires me to use both my hands (one to lift the fabric, one to pull the pin--I put pins in very close together, and to remove them can cause you to be pricked if you're not careful!)  I can continue sewing the binding while removing the clip.  AND no chance of blood on the quilt from a persnickety pin!  Much quick to clip than pin--time saved.  Much quicker to unclip than unpin, more time saved.  No stopping to remove pins, so binding just became about twice as fast as before.  Or is it, only half as slow?  Binding is a slow process.  Anyway, I get done quicker with less aggravation, so I'm in LOVE with my new clips!  Try them!  I got my pack of 50 for @ $13.00 at a Black Friday sale, but they also sell them at JoAnn Fabrics, and with a 50% or 60% coupon, you could even get them cheaper than that!  Also, I'd get the box of 100 if I were to do it over again, 50 clips is not enough.  But they are so quick and easy, you can re-use them as you go along, so even 50 is better than pins!  There are 2 sizes, small and jumbo.  I have the small ones, and for bindings they are PERFECT!  Yesssss!  I'm in love!

Early Christmas Present!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Bob gave me an early Christmas present so that I could use it in finishing off my Christmas gift quilts.  It was a "ruler work" foot and a set of ruler work templates:

Merry Christmas, Vicki (from Bob!)

I am THRILLED to say the least!  I couldn't wait to try them out, so after a practice or two (perhaps I should have practiced a little bit MORE before I took them to the quilt...)  Here's my first official "ruler work"!

Flower and clam shells

You can see the flower added to the center,  The template size was perfect, and fit exactly in my orange center.  There was a little slip on one of the petals, but I think it turned out well enough.  I did not try to fix it.  The clam shells arch the inner points.  I'm not sure they "fit" the design, as there are no curves anywhere, but I was so excited to try them out.   

STRAIGHT lines radiating from the corner!

The best of all is that ruler work pressure foot.  I can use REGULAR rulers with it, and it doesn't hop, so the quilting goes along so smoothly.  I wish I had had it for the stitch in the ditch earlier on, but I will be using it for the blocks, stitching in those ditches with beautiful straight lines.  I am sooo happy with this gift!  Bob, he KNOWS what I like!

Center is Quilted

Quilting the kaleidoscope presented some challenges.  Not so much as how to do it, but WHAT do do.  So many sections!  I didn't want to lose any of the "WOW" factor that I feel this medallion center has.  I didn't want any quilting to detract from the design and colors of the center.  I looked at the Gallery of Quilts in Ricky Tim's book, and a lot of those quilts were quilted with meanders, feathers, flowers, pebbles, squiggles, waves, and various other free motion designs and I think the quilt design suffered from all that busy-ness.  So I decided to keep it simple and just stitch in the ditch.  I'm not that good at stitch in the ditch, and some of my lines are wobbly, but I think it is just fine and I'm not going to redo it.  It's not that noticeable from the front (which is the whole point of stitch-in-the-ditch!).  It shows more so on the back, however, because I used a darker thread.

Quilted on Front

Quilting on Back

Now, midway thought quilting this inner section, Bob received a package in the mail.  It was my Christmas present, and he decided to give it to me early!!  So that I could use it in quilting my quilt!  What a sweetheart!  It was a special "ruler work" sewing machine foot!!  And some templates, a "starter" set.  (More on this later!)  Well of course I had to try them out!!!  So I added in some clam shells, and a flower design in the very center. You can see this on the picture above.  But mostly, I used my straight edge ruler for straight lines in stitching in the ditch, and so the later part of this quilting in this section is much improved with my new rulers!  I also did ruler work for nice straight radiating lines in the corners.  It's so much easier with rulers, and such better results!!    Notice (in the above picture) wobbly crocked lines in the center areas, and the outer part, nice and straight!

Table Runners

In between quilts, I like to do a smaller project, something quick and easy, like the Skinnies I made for Linda.  I've been eyeing that Christmas fabric I won last summer, and decided to make some table runners for Christmas gifts this year.  I don't have any patterns, so I skimmed Pintrest, and the internet for ideas, and made up my own patterns from a couple of samples I saw.  I have two done, and hope to get in a couple more.

This first one I made is for me!  I rarely quilt for myself, so this is a real treat.  I measured my hutch and made this table runner to fit:

  

Here is a second runner that I made for a Christmas gift  (can't say for who just yet!)

The interesting part of these projects is that I have to figure out the pattern.  I had to do research on how to size/cut side triangles, and in the second one, I had to bind a 135 degree angle which was a new feat for me too!  So much math in quilting!  Sheesh!

Ready to Quilt

I have been working hard on the Kaleidoscope Medallion quilt, and the top is finished now.  I really loved putting this together.  I love the orange sashing in the quilt and the orange in the Medallion.  I was worried that my blocks would be boring, but in this arrangement, it's anything but!!  Here is the finished quilt top.  I had made 20 blocks, but this arrangement only used 16.

Taped to the floor and pinned, ready to quilt.

Final Layout

I have been working on my center kaleidoscope (TY, Ricky Tims, for the inspiration), and am loving how it's turning out!

It's really big, and I had planned on having it set on point in the quilt center.  But then I would have to add REALLY HUGE setting triangles to make the corners, and I think that added too much "dead space."  True, I could quilt something fun in those corners, but I just didn't like how it looked.  So I went back to the design board (EQ7) and jiggled the layouts, and came up with this one:

This ends up at 82" square, used 16 of my 20 blocks, which is a good thing.  There are 4 blocks that I won't use, and I have some that I don't like, and can easily find 4 to remove from the lineup!  My sashing can be a little wider now and I think the whole thing looks more balanced.  I like this layout a lot, and have decided, THIS IS IT!  I have tried so many possibilities in EQ7, I'm not sure which is which anymore!  So I can start sewing again, and stop fiddling with "how would it look IF...!"  This quilt should be ready by Christmas!