Table Runner

This table runner began way back in 1999. I was teaching quilting classes at a store up in Washington at the time. One of the classes was paper piecing and I taught a couple of classes doing the pineapple pattern. I made a rainbow colored one that I finished years ago and used as a Easter table runner, as well as a set in green and purple that I finished about 10 years ago. This Christmas theme set of blocks languished for years. I set them together in a row at some time in the past. Some years passed and I added the green border. I loaded it on the longarm twice and took it back off because after staring at it for a week or so I could not figure out how to quilt it. After finishing a very intricate quilt a couple of months ago (it is a secret project waiting for quilt shows to happen again so I will not show it on the blog till that happens) I decided to try this again.

 

 Ok loaded on the longarm and now I refused to fail on the quilt design once again. 

I decided on a few different elements for the quilting and love how it finally came together.

I started with the black centers and decided to do a feathered wreath.

Next I decided to do a continuous feather around the border. It sat like this for a few days but I finally figured out the other elements one at a time. I just did one thing and then stared at it till I could figure out the next thing.

This little project took almost 20 years to complete but I finally got it finished and really love how it came out. One other thing that I did when I pieced the blocks was to tea dye some of the lighter fabrics and the background was a very bright white and they were too stark looking with the other fabrics. I love how the tea dye gave them a much more aged look. In the close up photo above the red fabric and the white above were from my beginning quilt stash around 1984 or 85. All the other fabric were purchased in the 90's.