Vivika DeNegre, in her
Quilting Daily email this week, showed a tutorial
for a simple but beautiful table runner. I needed a house-warming gift
in a hurry, but I usually get too stressed to start and finish a project in a few days (and I usually try something too ambitious). However, my studio was finally in good enough condition to work, so I
thought,
Why not? If something went wrong, I'd have to go to Plan B, whatever that might be.
The design,
Graphic Patchwork Table Runner, is by Amy Ellis.
The charm square packages that can be purchased would make this even easier than it was. I didn't have any, so had to pull fabrics that would go together and cut the 5-inch squares. Some of my
Kaffe Fassett fabrics seemed perfect for this project.
For quilting, I used my walking foot and the serpentine stitch. Although I've used this stitch before, I was inspired by my recent download from Interweave,
Modern Machine Quilting with Catherine Redford, to use it here. My machine and foot allowed the width to be 5mm, and I lengthened the stitch to a 3. Starting in the middle, I made my first row of quilting down the center seam, which I had pressed open. For placement of the rest of the quilting, I used the edge of the foot and stitched back and forth until done.
I really like the look of this quilt and may have to make something similar for myself or other gifts. I hope the recipients of the this gift will like it as much as I.
You can see some of Amy Ellis's other designs
here.
