My PLAYTIME on a long-arm machine.....

I went to visit my friend, Michelle, recently.  She was kind enough to let me bring a project and "play" on her long-arm machine and quilt my item myself while visiting her.  I had chosen a wall-hanging that I really want to finish (it's been a UFO for way too long), but the night before, I realized it was going to be too complicated to do that.  So...I opted to pay her to do that one for me sometime this spring and, instead, I took along a fall-fabric table runner.  I had fun doing it.  I just did some meandering and some loops and I am really happy with how it looks now.  Here are two photos of it. (I am quite sure you can click on them to see them in greater detail.)   THANKS, MICHELLE!!!  I know I will never have a long-arm machine, so that was a real treat for me to use yours! I actually came home and did the binding on it pretty quickly......and I will look forward to using it next fall.  (The runner was pieced using the Disappearing Nine Patch technique.)

 

Tiny pieces.......

These 4 photos are tiny pieces of projects I am working on but can't show here yet. I don't want any of you to think I've been a slug and sitting around doing NOTHING....because I have been VERY busy....I just can't talk about any of it quite yet! So...for now, here are some "sneak peeks". Two are finished already and two are in progress (and about 3 others are barely begun)....and SOMEDAY I will be able to show them all to you here! Also....on a serious note, please keep good thoughts for us as we helplessly watch our dog going through some health issues that I think are signaling the beginning of the end for him. He is over 12 years old and has been losing control of his legs.......falling over even when standing still (but otherwise trying to run and play as usual). All his labwork came back "okay" ($354 worth of "okay") and they have no clue what is happening. We can't justify putting him through all kinds of other tests at his age and if they found it is a tumor or a neurological problem, we'd not subject him to surgery anyway. So....we wait and see what happens. As long as he isn't in pain and is eating and drinking, we can do that. If, however, he stops eating or drinking or is in pain, we will have to make the big decision...the one every pet owner dreads.

Tutorial for D9P table runner.....

I have seen on another blog a tutorial making 9-patch blocks to cut apart and then manipulate to form a quilt that looks like you took the time to cut out sashing and corner posts/cornerstones. (It is a disappearing 9 patch but done in a way I'd not done it before.) I decided to use my AccuQuilt cutter and do a quick runner for my kitchen island. Here is how I did it.

First, I cut out 4 1/2 inch squares. I sewed them into 9-patch blocks being certain to put my FRUIT squares on the 4 corners...a DARK GREEN square right smack in the middle....and my light green squares in the remaining spaces...and I sewed them together as you see in the following photos. (I used 3 fruit fabrics...blueberries, cherries, and strawberries.) I made several blocks.......and do end up with a quarter or two left over to go into my "orphan" pile.....the number you make depends on the size of the runner you want. Next I cut these blocks all into quarters with one cut vertically and one horizontally...being certain to cut them right in the middle so they were equal in size......

Then you turn all your quarter-blocks so that it will look like you have sashing and corner posts once you join them together.....these are not yet joined, as you can see
Next...decide on how you want them arranged. I did it first in EQ so I knew where I wanted each kind of fruit to be in my layout. I then sewed them into rows and then sewed the rows together.......this next photo shows just the top row sewn together. Now....look closely at that next photo and you will see that once these 3 rows were sewn together, there was NO "sashing" and "posts" at the top of the piece OR on the left side. This is the expected result of working with the D9P....2 sides will be "unfinished"... so....if you want the look of "sashing" and "posts" on all 4 sides (which I think it needs), you must do a little additional work (described below the next photo).I did want the look of sashing and posts all around, so I took some additional dark green and light green squares and cut them as follows.....cut the light greens in half and the dark greens into quarters. I then sewed them, in the old-fashioned way (LOL)to make my strips to finish the "sashing" and "posts". BAD PAT forgot to take a picture of the strips I sewed, but I'm sure you can figure that part out. Once I had the strips made, I attached them to the top edge and left edge of the runner and it looked like this.
Next you can see it with the binding...might be hard to see unless you enlarge it. I then show a picture that is a close-up of the quilting...which was all straight-line using a fancy stitch on my machine. This whole project...start to finish... took just a couple of hours. It would make a quick and fun hostess gift, I think. If you study my runner, you can see I only had to make just two 9-patches with blueberry fabric in all 4 corners.....only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners....and then only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners just FOUR 9-patch blocks all together (and then cut each into quarters) BUT only had to use three/fourths of the cherry block....so the remaining section of the cherry block is now in my orphan block baggie!Here is a close-up of the quilting. It is, basically, nothing more than stitch-in-the-ditch using a fancy stitch on my machine. Of course, you could quilt it differently and take the time to quilt in each square, but I wanted fast and easy the other day! LOL

For the backing fabric (shown below), I used cotton fabric that matches one of the sets of valances I've made for the kitchen, so this runner can do double-duty!!! I LOVE to make things that are reversible...even though the other side isn't even pieced. I actually used ONLY stash fabrics for all of this...and the fruit fabrics were all in my SCRAP basket. So.....this was a fun project (made extra-quick by using my AccuQuilt GO to cut the 4 1/2 inch squares) and also helped me to do more "stash busting"!!! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you have questions, feel free to ask.

Update on my Tumbler quilt top....

Here it is.......top is done...now I need to find a backing I like and quilt it...and it will have turquoise binding (same fabric as the smaller, inner border). This will look very nice in the sewing room / bedroom used by the grands when they are here. That room has a turquoise comforter on the bed and the valance is turquoise and lime green and there is a lime green sheer curtain on the window. This is throw-sized.......about 42" x 64". It was SO easy to make with the AccuQuilt GO! cutter. I only got the cutter on Monday afternoon and a tumbler quilt would have taken a long time to trace all the tumblers and assemble...hard to believe this is already DONE in 5 days (finished it yesterday). I am very happy with how it looks...and I used only scraps from my stash to make it (except for the green and turquoise fabrics in the borders, which I had to buy as I didn't have scraps large enough in my stash for that). What do you think?