Fall Table Runner- 2fer

 

I made my Mom a table runner for her birthday AND one for myself, too! The pattern is a little postcard that I bought at a quilt shop- it's called "Two-For" by Pieced Tree. The only change I made was to shorten it to 4 pumpkin blocks long, because I thought that was long enough and I only had that much of the pretty pumpkin fabric!
I wanted to make a fall-themed runner to leave on my table when it's not in use and I thought this pattern looked easy but attractive. The fabrics were from a bundle of fall-themed fabrics I bought for a dollar at my quilt guild auction in June. They were donated by a friend who just moved away, so the runners will be special in that they will remind me of her, too. She has excellent taste in fabrics and color selection.  This was a "charmed" project, as I call it when it goes with no problems. I has just enough of the fabric and I made no mistakes! The machine stipple quilting went without a hitch and I was able to piece enough of the brown for binding.
Now I just have to finish off mine. It may actually be done in time for the Fall holidays - yeah!

Detail of machine stipple quilting

Chicken Quilt Progress

I got the top of the Chicken Quilt put together. It took a long time to fit the blocks together, but I love how it worked out. The top is like a chicken coop with the rooster, nest, and hen. The bottom is a farm scene with the flowers and animals.

I want to add at least one border and I found this terrific fabric at Walmart. It is corn kernels! Corn is one of my chickens' favorite foods, too!
I will update again when I get the borders on and work on the quilting.

Fingertip Towel "L"

Since we got chickens for pets, I understand a lot of sayings better, like: "why did the chickens cross the road?" "To go visit our neighbors!" "Pecking order" means the biggest, bossiest hen is the "ruler of the roost!" And so I can say, fingertip towels are "rarer than hen's teeth." They just aren't popular anymore. My Mom always makes her bathrooms inviting with a little vase of flowers and a "fingertip" towel to dry your hands. If you've never seen one, they are larger than a washcloth and rectangular like a hand towel, but much smaller.

I bought six white ones on ebay and they are nice. The velour finish is soft and great for machine embroidery. These work well for embossed designs, so on my first one, I did an embossed seahorse in white on white. It looked great, but I gave it away without taking a picture.

The second one is this "L" from a new embossed alphabet at Designs by Juju. It was on sale for $4 when I bought it.

I have 4 more to experiment on. I would like to find a source for these in colors. Do any of you use fingertip towels??

Autumn Grace Sew Along Dress

I participated in the Sew Along over at Ellie Inspired Patterns Group. Laura is very generous with her patterns, teaching, and give-aways. If you aren't a member of her group, you should be! I have been smocking for ages, but Laura has tutored probably 30 or 40 first timers through this project.

While I love picture smocking, I find that I enjoy doing geometrics much more. This design is very simple, but the added ribbon makes it look a bit fancy. It was very quick to do, too!

I had smocked in red/pink to match this pretty fabric. When I started construction, I realized that I only had 1 1/4 yds- not enough! I went to buy more, but it was sold out. I could either make a top or figure something out to make a dress as I originally intended.
I added a panel of white batiste to the floral fabric, then covered it with a "faux" apron. I used Swiss embroidered trims and will add a red ribbon to the apron insertion when I have a chance. I think it turned out very cute.

Here's a view of the back. It is a basic peasant dress shape and should be quite comfortable to wear. I made size 3.

Tomorrow I have to finish a little quilted wallhanging for my Quilt Guild Challenge. Then it's back to the "Wee" Project I started. Lots of fun projects going on here- what about you??