Here you’ll find the supply list for the Playful Pyramids Tablerunner pattern that coincides with the YouTube video tutorial. You can find this and my bi-monthly video podcast, Sew Now What, where I talk about quilting, knitting and creativity.
Playful Pyramid Tablerunner supply list
I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I was busy most of the summer preparing for and hiking across Oregon with my husband. We had a wonderful time. It was an experience I’ll cherish. If your interested, you can check out my hiking blog here http://hittingthetrail.wordpress.com
Lately I’ve been trying to finish some quilts that were in various stages. I finished piecing this one
I’m not sure if I like it. The pattern was easy enough, but it just doesn’t excite me.
I finished piecing this one. I didn’t have a pattern so I was just winging it. I think it looks like spinning wheels.
I’ve actually got it all together and the backing pieced, it’s ready to be quilted. It turned out different than I had in my mind, but I really like it. I’ve got myself on my quilting schedule so I can get it quilted. I’m not sure how I’m going to quilt it yet, but something will come to me. More than likely it’ll be an all over design. It’s pretty busy, wouldn’t you say.
I even made my first table runner. I’ve been quilting for about 10 years and I’ve never made one.
The pattern was from this book.
You can see all the little flags marking future projects. It was fun to make something small that didn’t take a bunch of time and fabric. I made this with scraps I had in my cupboard.
Today I’m quilting a Quilt of Valor quilt. I’ve been quilting for that organization for 8 or 9 years. I’ve been paired with a wonderful quilter who pieces the tops. Then I quilt them and she gets them to their destination. We make a good team.
I’d better get to work!
This is my latest piece titled, “Losing my marbles”. I made it for a guild challenge. We were given a random candy and were to make something using that candy as inspiration. I was lucky and got this package of M&M’s 
. When I poured them out, they rolled around like marbles. That gave me the inspiration. I used the color of the wrapper for my hand dyed background fabric. I then marbled some fabric for the marbles. I made those in gradating sizes to hopefully give the illusion of the marbles pouring out. The marbling was done with fabric ink and shaving cream. 
You can see what I did on the Dharma Trading website. This link shows the product I used and the technique.
I hand appliqued the circles using an extra layer of batting to give them more definition. It was a fun project to work on and I have it hanging in my studio. 
Part of what I love about quilting, is the texture added to the quilt and how the quilt changes because of it. I recently finished this flower applique quilt for a client, with lots of white negative space. 
This gave me great space to add texture. The applique is beautiful and well done, and my job was to enhance it. I quilted a fairly dense background fill around the applique 
This made the applique stand out. The next task was to fill those giant blank corners. I love to quilt feathers, and this gave me the perfect place to play 
I marked 2″ from the edges and filled that space with freehand feathers. To make those pop, I quilted densely with freehand lines. 
I wanted this to feel more organic so the lines were quilted without using a ruler. I really like the overall effect of it all. In the end it’s about the client being happy, and she was.
Right now I’m quilting a pantograph on a very colorful quilt. You can see it on my Facebook page. It was a perfect quilt to be quilting on this dark stormy day. I love the colors, the brightness, the design. I guess you could say I love the whole thing. The pantograph is Lorien’s “Arabesque.
I’ve been working a little bit on a quilt I want to make. I don’t know what the block is called, or if it even has a name, but I like it. I also wanted to play with these certain colors (very different color scheme for me)
I made some sample blocks first so I could work out my measurements and how to use the 15 degree ruler. When I was ready to cut into the “real” fabric and made these 2 blocks ( all Moda Bella Solids)
I’m really going to like it. I think they look like spokes. I got these 2 blocks out of 1 strip set. I still need to figure out how to cut these down to make a hexagon so I can avoid applique. My plan is to get all the strip sets sewn and cut so I can work on putting it together during a quilting retreat with my friends in a few weeks.
I haven’t worked on the Prism quilt since I last showed you the progress, so nothing new to show you on that one. I’ve been busy with client quilts, and hopefully I’ll be able to show a few pictures of those soon.
I recently finished this cute pansy quilt for a customer. 
I love the colors, and all those cute little pansies around the outside…so cute! 
The center basket had these beautiful pansies made from ribbons. 
I enjoy doing feathers 
The customer was very happy with how this turned out, and so am I. After doing some custom work, I like to do some easier quilting. It gives my body and mind a break. This is a really cute little girl’s quilt that my customer made for her granddaughter. 
I quilted it with a pantograph called “Bubbles”. She also made a very similar quilt for her grandson that I just finished with the same panto.
I started working on my next project. I’m going to make this pattern 
Prism by Zen Chic. Look at all that wonderful quilting space! I got it as a downloadable pattern from Pink Chalk Fabrics. This pattern only needs 1 layer cake, so I ordered Botanics from Fat Quarter Shop. I want this quilt for my guest room, so I want it to be a bit sophisticated (just a little) and gender neutral. There’s a couple of pieces in the layer cake that I didn’t like, but I was able to replace those. This is what my pallet looks like 
There were a few things that I wasn’t crazy about with this pattern. This is a paper pieced pattern, and the blocks are around 9 1/2″. This means for each block, you have to print 2 parts (paper is only 8 1/2″). With 44 blocks, this was 88 pieces of paper being printed. That’s a LOT for such a simple pattern. Anyone who knows me knows I hate to waste. But I sucked it up, and moved on. I trimmed the extra paper before I taped each block together 
To get the pieces to line up properly, I use a light under my acrylic extension as a light box. 
This pattern also calls for using a template to cut the shapes. I feel that this makes for too much fabric waste (again with the waste!). 
Look at all that unused fabric! Don’t worry, I’m saving the bigger pieces. I’ll find some way to use it. 
I put a piece of double-stick tape on the back of the template to hold it in place and I was able to easily cut 6 layers (a fresh blade made this easier). 
I used my cutting ruler to make it easy to cut with my rotary cutter and not cut into the template plastic. 
I didn’t get very far with the cutting yesterday. So I hope I can squeeze some time today to get more of that done. The piecing will be pretty simple and straight forward. I really like the design of the quilt, and I look forward to seeing this all come together.
Next up for quilting is a Quilt of Valor. I’ve been quilting quilts for this organization for over 8 years. I’m fortunate to work with a woman in the Portland area, who makes nice tops. I’ll share pictures when that’s done.
Look at these adorable Yarn Coccoons 
They are hand knitted an felted. They’re used to hold your ball or skein of yarn so that while your knitting, it stays in control. Look at how creative you can be with the colors. 
You can get this pattern at Ravelry.com here. My sister, Cindy, designed these and wrote up the pattern so you can make your own. So go to her Ravelry store, and let your imagination go wild!
I got the quilting done on the Feathers quilt today. 
There are still chalk lines that need to be washed out. I really love the effect the quilting gave to this quilt, and I changed colors as I moved through the different sections. I didn’t start out with a plan, but somehow it always comes to me. I’ve already attached the binding, and it’s ready for the hand sewing to the back. Now it’s time to clean up and load my next customer quilt. 
I think this is my new favorite quilt. I used wool batting, so it will be nice and cozy.
Here’s a sneak peek at how the quilting is coming along on the Feathers quilt. I’m really liking it!
Sew Now What 