More Dining Room Decor

I still haven't finished quilting & binding the spoon/fork table runner/wall hanging, or even decided for sure what to do with it. I love it. Every inch of it. But I don't know that it fits with my dining room, which has a very distinct beach theme -- on the wall are photos of my family at various beaches around Brazil, a painting from our favorite beach town, beach-themed word-art and candles....beach, beach, beach. Which doesn't necessarily fit with bright, bright, bright spoon & fork, no matter how awesome they are.

notice the beachy artwork on the walls....

So, place mats. Many years ago now I made place mats for us out of recycled denim and some bright strips of fabric. I still have those and love them, but they are all wonky shaped and the bump down the middle makes eating off of them hard. Also, the wonky shapes mean some are too large to sit next to each other, so they just don't work with our new table.

I decided I need round(-ish) place mats to serve more as quilted chargers than actual large crumb catching place mats. I don't mind wiping up the table, but I do want our Fiestaware to not scratch the table. And I need them to match the dishes, and the beach theme.

What they look like with a plate on...

So, I dug through the stash and pulled strips upon strips upon strips of fabric. Sewed them up, and am now working my way through the pile, quilting them on the diagonal then cutting them into circle-ish shapes.

all the strip sets, sewn together....

the backing fabric

The backing fabric is a fun, bright diagonal stripe, so for the quilting I am using a blue thread and following the blue diagonal lines (yes, I am quilting them "upside down"). I'm quilting them wavy to give a bit of sea feel or beach feel, and I've used a mix of brights and beach-themed fabrics in each place mat to bring together the brights of the dishes and the beach feel of the dining room.
 
Turns out the quilting lines go straight (but wavy) and the stripes of the different colors go diagonal, which I like even better. This was accidental, when the first circle I cut ended up squashed on one side, which I decided should be the bottom. Just like that, diagonal became straight, and straight became diagonal, and all I can say is I'm glad it was the first one that did that because now I've done the rest that way on purpose and I love it. The slightly squashed circle shape gives almost a seashell vibe, which is even better.

One down, eleven to go! 

Craft Swap

I mentioned in my last post that friends and I participated in a craft swap. I love doing these, because it gives me a chance to try something new, get a small project done (which gives me a nice break from whatever large project is consuming my time...), and I get something fun in the mail later on! Win-win!

For my swap item, I chose to use a template I got at IQF in Houston last fall; it's a cutting template that allows you to fussy cut for a cathedral window block, and a method of completing the block completely by machine. Awesome!

I chose my same Brazilian butterfly fabric, and fussy-cut a butterfly in the recipients preferred colors. I selected fabrics from my stash that would coordinate and enhance the butterfly, yet still go with the recipients preferences as well.

Tried out my template, and voila!, a pretty cathedral window hot pad for the kitchen!

I used Insul-Bright with the batting so it would be heat resistant and safe to use for taking things out of the oven, placing under hot dishes, etc; this way it is pretty and practical all at once.

So, what else is new?

In the midst of all the rush to get my Oceans of Love quilt done, I also have been working on place mats for my dining table, a craft swap with friends, and planning for a future quilt project.

My mother-in-law has requested a lap quilt, in purples, as her Christmas gift this year. Now, I don't normally start working on or even thinking about Christmas before Easter, but Fat Quarter Shop has a daily 24-hour flash sale, which I check....well, daily! So when the Kool Aid Bali Crackers went on sale, a gorgeous layer cake of pink and purple batiks, I knew they would be perfect for her quilt and snatched them up.

I checked Moda Bake Shop first for quilts using only one layer cake, to make sure it would make a decent sized lap quilt; it did, or would, so I bought it, no hesitation. I'm planning to follow the Basic Math Quilt Tutorial for this quilt; looks fun and easy!

the layer cake, all spread out, and backing fabric in the middle

A few weeks later, this beautiful coordinating print also went on sale; it's flower blossoms, and she loves gardening, and it seemed to be the right color, but I wasn't sure.....I called Fat Quarter Shop, and they actually pulled both fabrics to compare and let me know that yes, what seemed to go well on my computer screen (looking at the images with each listing), did in fact work well in real life. Sweet! So I ordered the backing fabric as well (with a little extra just in case) and now I'm all set for her Christmas gift. Awesome!

Oceans of Love....Final Peek!

One more peek, then I'm submitting to Sacred Threads and won't post again until I find out if I was accepted or not.....meanwhile I'll update on what else I've been working on in between. ha!

Fixed it!

Got that corner all un-sewed and fixed up, and made a change to how I'm spacing the lines, which I like better...what do you think?

Before

After

Originally, I had two lines inside each curve, but I worried that when I repeated that on the narrower bands, it would look more like empty spaces that weren't meant to be there; in the narrowest parts, it would be lines quilted only 1/4" apart, but in the wider areas there would be 1" to 2" gaps.

I really wasn't excited about that, so after un-sewing the corner I had sewn to the back, I decided to start over with one line along each (top and bottom of each curve) and see what I thought. Now it has a line quilted 1/4" on either side of the curves created by the pattern, with empty space between, and the empty space looks and feels much more intentional. It also keeps it more in line with the rest of the quilting throughout the other sections of the quilt.

I think I like it! Turns out a mistake this time was a reason to make a needed change, for the better of the quilt. Love when that happens!

Now to finish....

Quilting the Oceans of Love Quilt....

I have been hard at work quilting the top, trying to make the deadline for Sacred Threads. I knew what I wanted to do for most of the quilting, so it was fairly easy to manage.

I inside-echo quilted the white cross, with a pearly white thread for a little sheen.

I outlined the "drums" to make them seem more "drummish" (I think they only look like drums in my head, but that's okay...), and added radiating lines coming from the drum centers along the flesh-toned rays, and spreading out on either side of center on those. I used a Sulky gold thread for that part to add shine. 

Then I was stumped on what to do for the multi-colored portion. I toyed with quilting hearts into the sections, but after consulting with my quilty bestie, I decided to do inside-echo lines following the waves or curves of the storm at sea pattern, to enhance that aspect of things. 

I had a variegated red-blue-yellow-purple thread for that, and got to work, one corner at a time. Then had a lot of un-sewing to do after the first corner. Well, it wouldn't be one of my quilts without a few mini-disasters along the way, right? 

First I managed to sew a scrap fabric to the back of the quilt. What the heck?

Then, a new-to-me danger of quilting a small quilt: folding the front corner over into the area you're quilting. Egads. How on earth did I manage this???

More importantly, how did I manage to not notice this for three whole lines???? Good grief. 

Looks nice on the front side, though, doesn't it? 

Ah well, time to do some un-sewing.....

Oceans of Love, coming together....

Whew! Lots of sewing, not much blogging, but blocks are getting done, and rows put together....the backing fabric was chosen, and I can see the finished line! Almost there!!!

Once I had all the blocks done, then I did move onto working section by section, which always feels easier to me than rows and rows. I divided the quilt into quadrants, sewed each quadrant, then assembled those larger "blocks" into the rows needed to make the top.

Top three individual quadrants, and the pattern for reference

row one assembled

second row of individual quadrants

The finished top!

backing fabric and thread
The back has a repeating verse about God's love....fitting for the theme of the quilt