Blue runner

I have have just newly retired from work, we have been extremely busy packing up the house, arranging storage and have hit the road for an adventure.  It should be fun.

I have quite a bit of my quilting supplies with us, and we are into the second week of our travels and the first item produced is a little runner for a Christmas gift.  An important task before we left home was to order in the book: Quilters Travel Companion.  This way, I can check out the areas we are going prior, and know where the local quilt stores are!  My husband is so pleased ( not ). Actually, he is wonderful as yesterday it was his suggestion to check out the Cloth Castle in Victoria. Thanks, hon.

I picked up some christmas fabric for this runner at Capital Iron, and I didn't even know they had fabric in their stores.  If you buy their fabric card for a $5 fee, good for one year, then there is a 20% discount on fabric.  My  one purchase more than paid for the card.

I love the bird fabric! 

runner # 2

 

Runner One finished

The first runner of three, has been finished and on its' way to a very kind family.  Our youngest son is attending a University 16 hours drive away, and they are kindly offering an 'overnight' stop each time.  This is a great relief to his mum, who does not enjoy the thought of him driving in northern weather,in the winter, in the dark, for 16 hours, after a day of school.

 

He will be attending school for 8 weeks at a time, then home for ten weeks... and so forth for a total of 5 times altogether.  Out of one charm pack with a yard of matching Fa La La, I have made a total of 3 Christmas runners.  Pictures tomorrow of Runner Two - it was sew much fun!

christmas runners

It is so hard to get any quilting projects started and completed.  With our house being for sale, every time there is a viewing from realtors, I have to pack all the sewing stuff up and put it away.  No ongoing projects!

Today, I decided to take the day and start some Christmas table runners.  I had a charm pack of Kate Spains' 12 Days of Christmas and some extra fa la la fabric to match. This is what I came up with:

 

 

 

I am just about finished machine quilting this one, and I made another out of the mostly red/green charms. On the back of both runners will be the fa la la fabric.  OOO la la!!!

A finish!

I have finished the quilt intended for use on the couch in our new fifth wheel trailer.  This was the first full sized quilt that I have machine quilted using my domestic machine, a Janome 6600.  The old adage, practice makes perfect still applies - the more I did, the better the stitches became, but I am still quite happy with it.




I have also made four mug mats in 'guy' fabrics and have set them aside for further gifts.  On the monster white quilt? Yes, I am getting my one 'hoop' done a day. Whew!

machine quilting

The reason I saved ... and saved... and purchased a Janome 6600 was so I could machine quilt my quilts, and not send them out to be quilted, and as long as they were not too big, of course.  I have been struggling and practicing and finally I started reading blogs to obtain some hints and tips.

Yes, should have done that first.  Well, I am half way through quilting the one in the blog header picture and I LOVE it.  Wait till you see it! 

a quick autumn table mat

I hand quilted up a quickie for the table in the kitchen:

It was a preprinted panel, but I just loved the colours and design and with hand quilting I think it looks pretty special!