Table Runners Galore!

Nothing like trying to figure out what to make for people than to do it with a deadline!  I tried this quilt block awhile ago, I was not jazzed about the effect with Mary Englebreit prints that I had.

I was in Baker City, OR for Thanksgiving with a specific fabric in mind, snowflakes.  These snowflakes were the ANSWER!  Actually, this table runner is for a friend who has a birthday on January 3, and she's not a girly girl.  Using Ryan Walsh's tutorial, I made this lovely holiday inspired table runner for Sarah.


Here is a close up of the quilting and binding on the finished project:



This was soooooo easy, a 1 hour project from start to finish, that I had to make another one!

This is currently not finished.  I am experimenting with free-motion quilting . . . and its not for anyone in particular at the moment.

Then I had a great idea to make one for my Grandma.  She loves chickens.  I found some fat quarters at Craft Warehouse and made this table runner in one weekend so I can give her something for Christmas, which she celebrates but I don't.

Rainbow Coffee "sliced" 9-patch Quilt

I am new to exploring quilting blogs simply because I was not aware there are so many good ones out there! Most of my inspirations have come from books, quilting magazines, or the fabric. My go-to book is usually, " Around the Block" by Judy Hopkins. But with this new found wealth of "ohhhhhhhh" and "ahhhhhhhhh" comes from various bloggers.


This pattern comes from Moda Bakeshop with a wonderful tutorial in February 2010 by John Adams, also known as Quilt Dad. That's right, it takes a guy to figure out a pattern that is easy to put together, but also creates a block that looks hard to do.

I have this habit of not making the EXACT same quilt, so I ignored the whole cutting the sashing to piece into the blocks. I had the great idea of just using two different fabrics: black with tiny hearts of rainbow colors, and a great check. I used 8 different colors: blue, turquoise, red, yellow, orange, purple, green, and pink. From those colors, I selected two fabrics of each tone, cutting one 5" strip, and cutting 5" squares from each, creating 8 squares from each strip. So each color had 16 squares. I'm a firm believer that you don't have to use the fabric line to create the same results.

For the centers I used Clothworks Fabrics called "Spilled the Beans" series. There are 16 different coffee mugs for the 5" centers. When I bought the fabric at Craft Warehouse in Kennewick, WA, a couple of years ago, there was only the cups panel, swirl fabrics (which I'm using the turquoise and pink), and coffee beans on various prints. There wasn't even the allover prints left.

9 of the blocks finished

I spent the day at my girlfriend's house, while also listening to her boyfriend yelling at the Seahawks game, sewing, cutting, ironing, and sewing some more. This was a fairly fast project, most of the time was taken in slicing the 9-patch, lining up the sides, iron, then do it on the other sides. It's like you are sewing the block 3 times. Sure beats cutting tiny little squares and piecing everything.

I am very happy with the results. It does create a very bright quilt and I love how the black sashing makes it awesome. In the end, I used 12 of the coffee cups. The next issue is what to make the border out of???