My Homemade Pantograph

I bought this paper holder from Ikea a while back. Originally I thought my granddaughters would use the paper for their art. The rolls of paper are less than $4 each so I figured it was a good investment since they like to draw a lot.

They never used the paper.

Once I got my longarmer, I thought it would be good paper to use to make my own pantograph patterns. Today I tried it out.

I wanted a spider web pantograph but I didn't like the ones I saw for sale. I did find something similar to a spider web so I ordered it but it's pretty large and I really wanted something smaller in design to use on table runners and table toppers.

I drew a simple spider web then traced it onto the roll paper until I had 9 spider webs exactly the same. I tried it out on a 36" square table topper. It was just the right size pattern for this project. I think I will try this again.

Halloween Table Decor

In an effort to use up some older fall fabrics, I finally broke into a fat quarter bundle I purchased a very long time ago. It's a cute bundle and I whipped up a nice table topper for my daughter's kitchen table.

The special surprise for my granddaughter is the Nightmare before Christmas fabric that I used for the backing. It is her very favorite thing besides dinosaurs.

I made a larger version of the table topper out of the same fabrics, I think I will save that one to sell at a future craft fair.

I also picked up a table runner kit from a local quilt shop last week. It didn't take long to put it together. I had some incentive since I wanted it for my kitchen table. With halloween looming, I knew it was best to get it done quickly so I would have time to enjoy it.

Rainbow Quilt WIP

This is one of my daughter's quilt projects. She normally completes her own projects but she has 7 or 8 quilts tops done and she can't seem to keep up with getting them quilted.

Normally I wouldn't post her projects here, after all it's her work, not mine however, I did put this quilt of hers on my longarmer.

I decided to buy a bolt of high loft quilt batting and I really wanted to try some of it out for this project. So I loaded the quilt and batting and chose this cute butterfly panto for the quilting. I used bright variegated thread for the butterflies.

The quilting turned out exactly as I had hoped, the thick batting really made the butterflies pop. They are quite puffy.

This is a Quilts for Kids quilt and I'm sure a little girl will love it since it turned out so cute.

The quilting is done but my daughter can put the binding on!

Modern Maples Table Topper

I made this table topper today using the Modern Maples quilt pattern. The blocks measure 12 inches finished so I decided to make 9 of them in order to get a 36-inch square table topper.

It was really fun using this bundle of fall fabrics for this project. It was a perfect match with the maple leaves.

I quilted it on my longarmer using a panto that had leaves and berries. A variegated thread worked perfectly to enhance the pretty maple leaf blocks.

This is exactly what my kitchen table needed for this fall!

What's on the design board?

Over the past few months, I haven't been tracking my projects from month-to-month. I think the new longarmer and the busy summer has put a kink in my routine to the point where I'm not getting much sewing done.

Now that it's cooling off where I am spending more time indoors, I'm getting back to doing some sewing.

I took all my fall fabrics out of my stash and piled it on my cutting table. I decided it's time to use a bunch of it up by making some new table toppers.

I made up a few Halloween toppers and I will be ready to quilt them as soon as I find a smaller spider-web pantograph that I like.

I'm also obsessed with maple leaf blocks. I want to make as many as I can to create a few table runners and table toppers. I will keep some for my own table and add the rest to my craft fair stash.

Quarter-Square Triangle Minion Quilt

Using the quick quarter square triangle method found in one of my Missouri Start Quilt Co. magazines, I made a few qst blocks. It's pretty simple, you just sew 4-patch blocks using 4 different prints. Then you put two of the blocks together, rights sides together and sew a quarter-inch seam allowance all around the outside. Then you just rotary cut on the diagonal in both directions and Viola! - you end up with 4 blocks with quarter square triangles. It's amazingly easy.

In making the blocks, I used up some scrap Minion fabric I had laying around.  It was such a quick and easy way to make blocks that I just kept making them until I ran out of Minion fabric. Once I had the fabric used up, I put the blocks together to make this small quilt. It will go to Quilts for Kids this fall.

Just Kisses Quilt

I finished my just kisses quilt today. I got the pattern for free from the Robert Kaufman website. I had a bundle of Atlas fabric from Windham Fabrics and the small prints felt like a perfect fit for the pattern.

I made the quilt top during my senior center sew days. I decided a while back that it would be easier to attend the weekly open sew days if I always had a project ready. So I only worked on this quilt at the senior center. It took me most of the summer to complete since I spent only a few hours a week on the project.

I made the back using the same background fabric as the top and used up some of the extra blocks I cut to add some interest to the backing. Once I had the top and back done I had fun choosing a pantograph to quilt it. I used a pantograph called Soho. It has a bit of a modern flair with round swirls to complement the x's.

The Table Runner Saga

Over the course of the summer I made a bunch of table runners. They sat and sat in my sewing room because I didn't have enough green to make the binding for one of the runners and I didn't have enough of the floral print for the binding for another and then there was a third one I didn't bind and I  can't explain why. Anyway the sat. And sat.

So finally I was determined to get them done. Last week I scraped enough floral fabric together to finish one of them - and yes, there are more seams in the binding than I like. I took the other one with me to the fabric store and was determined to buy 9 inches of something that matched - and lo and behold there was a nice green grunge with a speck of blues that worked perfectly. So that one was completed. And the one that just sat got done too.

Phew!

So now I have 23 new table runners that I want to photograph is a creative way so I can call this project completed. I have this great idea to hang them all on my clothes line and get on a ladder and photograph them from above so the volume and the colors create a dramatic scene. And it starts to rain.

And it rains again.

So today the weather looks good - well good enough, I think. So I head out to the clothes line. The clouds start to roll in and I'm worried that the weatherman is wrong about today's forecast. I keep on hanging the table runners on the lines. It takes forever because it's pretty windy. I am determined to photograph the runners during the times when the wind settles down. So I wait.

And I wait some more.

It turns out it's not going to stop so there's not going to be any ladder climbing in this photo shoot. The wind gusts will knock me over. So this is the best it is going to get.

I am officially calling this project completed.