A Taste of Spring

[pattern is available here and here]

Happy, happy sunshine!  Today our bad air blew on outa here and was replaced by blue sky, sunshine and (just a bit) warmer weather.  A welcome change! 

This past week, to fight off the winter blues I created a new table runner to go with my new table.  Our old table was a large square so all of my table toppers were large and uh, well, square.  I’m a little sad to not be able to use some of them any more on my table but a few of them were pretty worn and faded and needed to be retired.

For my new runner idea I pulled out some Kona white and a stack of blue & green fabrics and sketched up some different vase shapes. 

This is one of my favorites:

All of the vases and leaves are appliqued on using Heat n’ Bond lite. Love that stuff.  Then I did some straight line stitching around all of the edges.  I used my free motion quilting foot and the same “scribbled” look that I used on my burlap Fallen Leaves table runner. 

For the stems I used a regular ol’ pencil to lightly draw a line and then I used my same free motion quilting foot and green thread to “draw” over the pencil line two or three times. As my youngest says, “easy peasy!”

Once I got that done, I thought the leaves and vases needed something else.  They seemed to be lacking a little detail.  So I added a line of stitching down each leaf, sometimes adding a little curve to the line to give the leaf some dimension. 

I also added some detail lines to each of the pots.  I love what these extra lines add.

I had so much fun making this runner that I made two more – a red one and a pink one.  I’m not yet sure if I’ll be keeping both of those.  I also wrote a pattern for this project that includes instructions to make two sizes of runner as well as a circular table topper.  The pattern includes my step-by-step instructions, templates for the applique pieces (leaves and vases in two sizes) and diagrams for layout options. 

The pattern can be found here and here.  And to celebrate the departure of January 2013, get 20% off the pattern when you purchase from here and use the code “springsprouts”.  Coupon expires Feb 1, 2013. 

I’ll show you more of the pink and red versions tomorrow!  Oh, and the shop/blog I work for is having a giveaway this week for a $25 gift certificate.  Giveaways are always nice, aren’t they?