A Little Holiday Quilting

Did you make any gifts for the holidays?  I'm in a small but very talented quilt, Friendship Star in Crystal Lake.  These ladies are avid quilters and they make the most beautiful things.  For our Christmas Challenge we all got a fat quarter and had to make something as a gift. We have no idea who the recipient will be.  It's a bit intimidating for me, while I have the quilting down pretty well, everything that comes before is certainly questionable!  My first thought was a bag.  I've wanted to make the Dancing Diamonds bag for years and the fat quarter that we were given would be just perfect for it.  Now any of you that know me, know that for one reason or the other when I go to make a bag all the sensibilities that I possess run and hide in a closet, a cozy for a nap, but they there's no sensibility left in me.  It's the strangest thing, but it's very true.  But some day I will prevail and this bag will be mine!!  

I get ready for this bag, convinced I am going to turn the corner in this wonderful bag making world and I can create something just as amazing as the other ladies in this guild.  I have my coordinating fabrics, I cut my strips and I'm ready to go.  As soon as I laid my strip from the fat quarter I realized they were not cut for diamonds.  My heart sank, I have this bag curse that I just can't shake, dang it.  But time is running out, there's only a fat quarter, and I needed every inch of what I had.  

I quickly scour the internet for ideas that will not be nearly as spectacular as the bag planned but certainly there could be something that would be pleasing.  Then I found a runner from Crate and Barrel or Pottery Barn and like many quilters do, I thought.....I can make that!  And so I fell into my comfortable quilting corner and made a runner.  I'm not sure I got many pictures of it as I was riddled with quilt at first not giving a second try to the bag and then blatantly taking the pattern I say and making it and not even giving the proper credit (I looked for it again and couldn't find it....I tried). Shoot didn't even take a picture after the binding was on!

If you're still with me, I can give you just a few details on what I did.  It's really a simple pattern with the ornament on the ends (using the fabric that I was able to salvage).    I used  my Accuquilt circle die and cut the circles and then a couple of 1.5 in strips for each end, fused them on to a 14 in width of beautiful green fabric.  Then the fun begins!!!  All my sensibilities have returned.  

So this runner needs some fancy quilting and I am in just the mood to quilt something to death, I need a win!!  I wanted to evoke the sense of an vintage ornament in the middle of this modern runner.  I found the center and started marking.  I used the Leisha Kaye Circle2 (circle squared) rulers for this.  The 10in for the outer circle and the 5 in for the inner and the 8 in for the top and bottom.

Then I got to quilting. I've got two layers of batting, Quilters Dream Blend with Wool on top and 60 wt thread top and bottom.  I normally don't like to use different colored threads but thought  this one need just a little bit of something different so I added a Christmas Green to the cross hatched center and top.  Finished it off with a lovely teal binding.  The recipient loved it. Someone asked how long it took to quilt it.  I just explained that it took longer to sew the binding on than it did to quilt it!  I'm the slowest binder ever.

So what do you think?  Does it bring out that vintage glass ornament?  I sure hope so. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season however you celebrate!  I hope there's lots of stitching time as well.

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