Kitchen Fabric Art

A little more sewing has occurred, but, yep, it's still kitchen related. Perhaps this year should just be called the year of blogging about the kitchen, with a teeny bit of sewing thrown in. Or not.

Anyway, this was a project that I also started (and mostly completed this summer). A quilted table runner. My mom and I had purchased a kit at the Houston quilt show when we attended way back in 2009. Mom made hers earlier this year, and that inspired me to get on the ball, and get mine made, too.

The pattern is Table Art by Calico Carriage Quilt Designs, and is still available. The kit at the quilt show, had some fabulous fabric, that has kind of an industrial look, which completely goes with our kitchen design.

A close up:

The quilting was free motion, and pretty random at that. Different sections got different designs, but mostly it was straight lines on the circles, outlining the big circles, and the fabrics with "pictures" also were outlined. I used a variegated thread on the top. My bobbin thread was initially a quilting thread (no Ellen... don't use that!!!... wait... where were you when I quilted almost 2/3 of the thing that way) Oh, I'm back. Quilting thread in the bobbin completely messed up the tension and I just couldn't get it to look right. Thankfully, the part that looks the worst is the back which is resting against the table, and I can completely live with that. So much that I even "signed" it...

Toaster Cover

I've taken a little break from the shirt dress to make a custom toaster cover for a friend. This has given me the opportunity to try out a new finishing idea that will work on tote bags and purses as well as the toaster cover. OK, it's not a new idea as the purse designer interviewed on Pattern Review mentioned that her designs are finished with French seams, and I thought, hey, that would work with this! And, yes, it did!

Often these home dec kind of projects cover their seams with bias tape, but that seemed a bit time consuming and fussy to me. French seams worked fabulously! And now that you've seen the inside, how about a look at the pretty outside. And yes, this is for the biggest toaster I've ever seen!

I just have it over a small box, so that explains the saggy top.

A close up of the double fold bias tape that I did use to cover the bottom "hem".

 A close up of the machine embroidery. And you can see the machine quilting I did here. This was a great opportunity to practice my machine quilting skills. I used super thin batting and a bleached muslin backing, and the walking foot for great results!

Parting shot: