Finally finished the listing of the little cute Christmas table runner pattern for my Etsy shop

It comes in two sizes measuring either 18-1/2in x 38-1/2in or 18-1/2in x 48-1/2in.

Took a bit longer to get the pattern together this time as I had to make sure that the templates printed out properly and were 100% correct. Would have been good to have had this pattern up before Christmas but so be it...one cannot rush these things and it will be there, ready to go for next Christmas!

Should have maybe mentioned that this is also an excellent applique design for a farm animal quilt, however in the end I just had to get this done. There may be another quilt in the making at some point

Onto the next pattern!

Karin

New Listing in Etsy Shop

Finally finished my latest project and put it up in my Etsy shop. A bit on the late side, but better late than never...here is the Quilted Christmas Table Runner/ Wall Hanging with the three applique sheep.

The runner measures 18-7/8in x 37-5/8in and looks also great on the wall as a bit of a Christmas decoration. In terms of quilting, I put a loop design in the background behind the sheep, then put a wavy line in the red sashing with a wave ruler. This took me the longest time to work out how the wave ruler would end up in the same spot in every corner but I eventually got there and the actual stitching took a mere 5 minutes. In the black border I just put straight lines as there is really nothing that would show particularly well. 

Also, again, had chosen a light backing which necessitated some fine tuning of the tension. I often read in the Bernina FB group about people's frustration with the pokies being shown either on the front or back. Must say that I have got little problem with that...it truly is a matter of patience and fine tuning your tension and it is absolutely possible to stitch with two different colours. Mine was a tad more challenging as I did use a thin cotton/polyester batting for the table runner, however the back did look great.

You are looking at a sheep sideways here. The background was stitched with an Aurifil 50/2 thread  of grey on top and white in the bobbin. The sheep needed some darker colours for the applique, i.e. the hat was stitched down with a red colour and the face, ears and feet with a dark grey colour. I used Invisafil in the top for this and the Aurifil white in the bobbin. Worked absolutely fine, not one pokie in sight. I think people are afraid to play with the bobbin tension. I must say that I find this super easy on the Bernina Q20, just needed a little nudge here and there and we were ready to stitch...nothing too drastic.

Also solved my problem of having the black feet of the sheep shining through the white fabric. Used a thin fusible woven interfacing between the fabric and the fusible applique paper. Made all the difference!

Now I only have to write up the pattern which now will probably be postponed until after Christmas. That, of course, was not the idea, but so be it...I will put up the pattern for the sheep after Christmas ready for next year's Christmas!

Well, back to my little Mini Wholecloth No 2 now...

Karin

Re-Surfaced After The Quilt Show

Back again. the quilt show has come and gone and I am still working on my Christmas Table Runner. Well, better late than never.

This is how far I got

All the sheep outlined, stitched down and background quilted. In two minds about putting something in the red sashing. Might leave it and stitch down the black border with some stars. However this will have to wait a minute as life is a bit busy at the moment.

My show quilt looked fabulous, however did not win anything. This was no big surprise as it was a bit unusual, but I was happy enough just seeing it there. Always a thrill.

I did two classes at the show. The first was with Canadian quilter Kathleen Riggins about combining designs. This was just a lecture, so nothing to show for it. It was quite enjoyable and there were a few more unorthodox ideas that I really liked, like quilting over an already quilted area with a different thread colour. Unusual, but very effective in the quilts that she showed us.

My second class was with Tasmanian quilter/embroiderer Helen Stubbings...colouring in your quilting to make it look like applique. She calls it Colourque or Faux Applique. Again very enjoyable...I sat there for hours colouring in but only got a very small section done.

On the right is the elements coloured in with pencil and that lone motif on the left has the textile medium on top of it. I thought that I would really like this and I did to some degree, however I did not rush home and continued on it as this is a huge amount of precision work to be done. The colouring does take forever and I can see this becoming a UFO. Also must say that my colour choices were a bit sus...all a bit too pastel for me, I think I would do better with stronger colours. So hopefully I will finish this over time.

Well, then came the shopping...fantastic!

Bought more rulers 😏...to make myself feel better about my lack of self control, I went through my rulers when I came home and decided that I will get rid of some. I bought the HQ set of the smaller swag templates. Had my eye on that for a while as I find the swags very useful in finishing off the borders on some of the smaller quilts. Then I passed the Bernina stand where they had a selection of Amanda Murphy's rulers and bought the Wave set...again, find waves useful for borders. Did I need them?...probably not! Apart from that stocked up on some blades and found the Invisafil thread box that had both red and grey in there which I needed for my Christmas sheep table runner. Interestingly I bought this Bohin marker which says (in English) it is a chalk marker however when I came home and inspected it a bit more closely the info on the packet states in German that it is a ceramic pencil, so I am actually unsure whether it is chalk or ceramik. I suspect it is ceramic, so now I got two ceramic pencils. 

So now back to the daily grind and finishing off that Christmas Table Runner.

Karin

Progress on my X-mas Table Runner

Not much to report over here. 

Working on my Christmas Table Runner and got heaps more done than I thought. Got the runner finished and then had to hunt around for a suitable backing. Another trip to the fabric shop and I am ready to baste

That's probably all I am going to do this week as the quilt show (AMQF) is going to take up the rest of the week. This will be very exciting as I am booked into two classes. One with Kathleen Riggins about combining FMQ designs and another one with Helen Stubbings about colouring in your wholecloth. Very excited...will report back hopefully with some pictures of what we have done. And then, of course, there is shopping...and the Festival of Quilts. Lots to see and do, this will be so good.

Karin

To Do Tuesday - 1/11/22

Here are my goals from last week:

📌prepare another Mini Wholecloth using a dusty pink fabric with a slightly stronger thread that will hopefully show up a bit more; this is for the workshop next year...I might change the fillers a bit from the original one to see what that looks like.

📌start work on a new pattern; this pattern was supposed to be for Christmas and I will get it done...it's just a bit on the late side, but so be it. Need to get this out of my system so I can start on something else.

📌If time allows, continue on my cat blocks.

Did manage to start another Mini Wholecloth

I changed the layout slightly, made the frame around the heart a smidgen wider and quilted the feathers in a more playful way. I forgot to mark a grid around the hearts, so I think I will just micro-stipple that. at the moment it is just sitting there as I am a bit undecided what to do next. Quite like the hearts 'fat' like that and am just pondering.

In the meantime, my show quilt has finally been handed in. the quilt show is next week, so that should all be very exciting. Have not been to a quilt show in a very long time. Looking forward to the shopping mall (even though I really do not need anything...famous lat words!).

Also made a start on a new Christmas pattern which I am really a bit late for but it has to be done. This pattern is a bit special, as it is a drawing from my daughter when she was very young. Already then a clever little entrepreneur she did not give me that pattern for some time...at the time I was writing patterns for magazines and that meant that you gave up the copyright to a pattern to the magazine. I did not mind that much as I was paid for the patterns, however my daughter did not want to lose the copyright to her little drawing. It took another few years before she granted the copyright to me when I started to sell patterns on the internet myself. This Christmas we were both looking at the pattern and thinking...would that not be cute if we gave it a Christmas theme and here it is...the Christmas sheep

Currently doing the applique and going around this with a zig-zag stitch. Bit out of practice but I am sure once I done it a couple of times it will be fine. Planning on 3-4 sheep for a table runner. Have a nice black Christmas print for the border, so the whole thing will just focus on the sheep. Very cute, however in terms of Etsy and their Christmas marketing way too late...I will probably finish this by the end of November, but it's fine...it can just sit there on the Etsy shop ready for next year.

📌For next week I will just concentrate on the sheep to get all the blocks ready to be put together. Realistically that is all that I am going to achieve

Linking up to Texas Quilt Gal for the weekly To Do Tuesday Linky Party and Midweek Makers over at Susan's blog 'Quilt Fabrication'

Karin

Christmas Table Runner Finished!

It's June and I have finished my christmas table runner! This is the last of four that I did out of one panel purchased last year. The panel was 'Snow Place Like Home' by Sharla Fults for Studio E Fabrics. Bit chuffed with my efforts as this could have easily ended up in the UFO pile...was just lying around from last year and I had of course moved on to other things. 

Did not take me a long time to put together and like with the others that I did I kept the quilting to a minimum for a clean modern look. Just outlined the snowmen, blocks and sashings and put some channels in the sashings and border.

It measures 18-3/4in x 41in and I actually quite like it as a wall hanging. Really cheerful.

It's up and running in my Etsy shop if you are interested. 

 

Karin

Last Finishes for the Year

Managed to finish off two more UFOs before the year comes to a close. Nothing too exciting but very happy to have completed this.

Natalia Bonner's 9 Patchalong quilt

This is from 2020...had finished the quilting and then just put it away. Even had the binding cut up. The binding has been sitting in my sewing room on one of the cupboards ready to go...since September 2020. Can you believe it?

Was actually really interesting to look back on this one. I had forgotten already what we did on this.

Looks great and is a really good visual of all the different designs to look back on.

Then saw the border...cannot even remember doing this. What a great idea to use the wiggly lines to split up the border width. Looks really effective, definitely something I would use again.

After this I also finished my Snowmen table runner. This was the first one I did and I completely mucked up the quilting on it. So did some unpicking and just went with some Ribbon Candy in the sashing after having soaked the entire area to get rid of the marks from the stitching. That worked really well and it turned out quite respectable in the end. Left the stars in the border, even though I did not like them, but you can hardly see them anyway. Ended up giving it to my daughter for her dining table. Have one more lot of Snowmen left to make into another table runner which will be another project for next year.

Would be great if I could say that this was it, but there is another UFO lurking in the cupboard waiting for a binding to do done. That will also be on the list for next year!

Also joined Bethanne Nemesh' Breaking Boundaries class which will begin in February. This is about improvisational piecing and background fillers and was the first class I looked at before I actually signed up for the Feather class (currently on a Christmas break to be continued in January). There is the option of piecing a number of quilts together before the classes start in February, so I made a start on this with some curved piecing. 

That was good fun. Can't wait to see what's next.

Karin

Snowmen Table Runners

Still doing my Snowmen Table Runners.

One of them is finished and up in my Etsy shop and has to be one of my favourite finishes for this month.

I advertised this as a table runner or wall hanging. I quite like it as a wall hanging actually...the snowmen blocks are from a panel from Sharla Fults for Studio E Fabrics. The panel is particularly cute and called 'Snow Place Like Home'. I painstakingly cut those snowmen out and then just set them in a simple sashing. I kept the quilting to a minimum as I wanted that uncluttered look. Apart from outlining the snowmen, I just echoed around the sashing and inner border and putting some green lines through the dotted border to stabilise the runner.

I also did one for myself, however that one is still in production as I started to try different designs in the sashing and inner border on that one. Did not like it at all and will have to un-stitch that to finish it off.

Currently working on a second one with a red sashing. Again did not really think that through. As I have some lighter backing fabric any stitching in the sashing had to be done with a red thread on top and white in the bottom. Never a good choice and you would have thought that I learned that by now. However I approached this with some patience and was happy to manage to get the tension to a point where it was just right. Was actually surprised that this worked so well as the batting is a flat 60/40 Cotton/Poly mix, so not a lot of room to hide any tension issues.

Have a look at the back

Bit chuffed with that as it is not easily achieved normally. I decided to just go with the echoing again even though I would have liked to put some Ribbon Candy in there. However, any loopy type quilting showed the red dots a bit more and as this is also going in the Etsy shop did not really want that.

Just the binding left on this one

So darn cute!

Linking up to Favorite Finish Monthly Link Up at Meadow Mist Designs

Karin