Scattered colours table runner

I will shock you with this post because I will actually blog about a finished project- hurray!!

Couple of weeks ago, I started this table runner as a quick and easy project. As usual, it took me a while to finish it but a late finish is still a finish and I am happy about it.
I want to share some details about this project with you.
Some of you might already know and follow Alex of Teaginny Designs. I came up with Alex on Flickr first and immediately I started following her blog too. Alex is creating beautiful quilts and other home decor items made with improvisation technique. There are so many photos of her beautiful and inspiring projects both on Flickr and on her blog. When I was going through her Flickr photos, I saw the picture of her book called Improvising Tradition. It immediately grabbed my attention with its title and cover photo and I didn't hesitate to buy my own copy.
In her book, Alex is teaching you how to combine some traditional patterns with strip piecing, strata piecing and slice and insert techniques and make 18 beautiful, modern projects. For someone like me who feels nervous when it comes to applying improvisation techniques, this books takes the pressure of you by taking you through the projects step by step with great photos and illustrations and explanation.
So, to get started, I chose the scattered colours table runner project.

I fell in love with this table runner when I first saw it on Flickr and since then, had been thinking about making one.
I had some Kona charcoal and lots of 10 inch Kona precuts in beautiful colours. After some playing with the colours, I chose a nice mustard yellow like in the photo, a pink and a neon green. And, made this.

To be honest, I was a little nervous when I was slicing my strips for the coloured inserts. As much as I tried to let it go, I think I (unconsciously) chose to be on the safer side and most of the time centred my inserts. As a result, my inserts look quite organised and grouped rather than scattered LOL.

 I love the neon effect of pink and green and also love how yellow creates the balance between the colours.

For quilting, I chose to do straight stitching because I wanted the quilting to have the least effect on the overall look of the runner. I chose to bind it with the charcoal, as Alex says in her book too, to take the attention to the coloured inserts.

You can find the Jewel Box Coasters projects from her book as a free download at Sew Mama Sew's blog. 

Lastly, you can purchase your own copy through the link below. Please note that I am an Amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book by following the link below, you make a small contribution to my blog.

Thank you!

Monday Makers!#34

Hi everyone!
Hope the last week treated you well. Mine was emotionally full of ups and downs but I am still alive!

Last week I started a table runner; a project which could be finished quickly. Well...I did finish piecing it in two days but had to make time to quilt it. I also said that I was going to put some more photos with more details about it but I just couldn't do it. Mondays and Tuesdays are really the only days I can spend on quilting and taking some photos; whether progress shots or photos of a finished project. Now that the winter is almost here and days are quite short, there isn't any daylight left to take outdoor or even indoor project photos. The sun sets around 17:40 and by the time I pick up the family and come home, it is already dark. Anyways.
I finished quilting it just an hour ago and I am hoping to prepare the binding and -if my son sleeps a little early- sew it tonight. By this way I will have plenty of time to take some photos of it tomorrow. I am quite happy with the outcome but I want to share more about it, again, hopefully tomorrow
For now, I will show you a progress photo I took yesterday. It gives you an idea about what it looks like. After some gardening, thanks to rain, I had a chance to spend an hour to quilt it.

All three colours are very nice but I love the yellow especially.

Now it is your turn to share your finished projects from last week and freshly started ones today!

1.Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!

2. Grab the button from the side bar or put a link back to me in your Monday post.

3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.

5. To link an Instagram photo, click the Instagram icon at the bottom of the link-up screen and use the URL of your IG feed as the link (for example, my URL is http://instagram.com/hugabitquilts) Please hashtag #MondayMakers!
6. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!

7. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers! #19

Hi!
How was your Christmas? Some of you might still be on holidays; how is it going? We went to Sydney to visit my husband's family. It was a bitter sweet Christmas for everybody; the first Christmas without my brother-in-law. We still enjoyed it but missed him deeply too. We gave and received lots of gifts; especially my son. We can open up a toy shop very easily!
Crafty people; have you done much sewing, quilting, knitting, painting..? Before the holiday period started, I stocked up some fabric thinking that I would do looots of sewing/quilting and I would run out of fabric and all the shops would be closed. How silly I was..I haven't touched any of those fabrics; basically haven't done anything. I started quilting my "rise up" quilt only last night-mind you that it was going to be ready for Christmas. Life is busy with lots of other stuff and things don't go in the way you plan them. I find this frustrating sometimes. Anyways..
Now that Christmas is over and my quilt is still a WIP, the theme is no longer Xmas and it is going to be a wall hanging, not a table topper.

I decided to do straight stitch quilting and have only framed the triangles so far. I really wonder what it will look like when finally it is finished!
Now to Monday Makers!
Do you have any finishes to share with me? Have you started a new project? Here are the linky rules:

1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- DONE!!- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Makers! #18 and progress on the table topper

Hi all!
How was your week? How is the Christmas rush going? We have been quite busy with working in our backyard to make some sensible progress during this holiday period. We are going to Sydney on Christmas eve to spend Christmas with my husband's family. No pressies were wrapped up yet tho!!
I haven't made much progress with my table topper; I can only sew ten minutes here and there. I am still hopeful that I will finish it before Christmas!
After receiving comments on which version to choose, I decided to go ahead with the version 2, which was also the most liked version.

I sewed my triangles into the background fabric, placed them on my design wall, patched the empty spaces and did my best to maintain the design-it was a little difficult because the triangles were overlapping and separating them was going to increase the size of the table topper. So I had to really squeeze them in this frame.

This is how it looks and hopefully how it will look like if I don't mess it up when sewing. What do you think?

Even though this is a Christmas inspired table topper, I think I will call it "rise up". Sometimes your circumstances might drag you down but you should always find a reason to rise up.

Now to Monday Makers!
Have any finishes to share with me from last week? Maybe a new project you start today? Here are the linky rules:

1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- DONE!!- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Christmas trees table topper

I started my Christmas themed table topper last Monday and shared a photo with you. I want to tell you a little more about it.
I had a rough design idea about this table topper; triangles forming a modern version of Christmas trees. Just  when I was about to cut the fabric, I remembered that I enrolled in Jacquie Gering's Improvisational Piecing, Modern Design class at Craftsy a few weeks ago. (I must say that I love it; it is one of the classes I watch regularly, over and over again.) One of the lessons in her class is teaching you how to make her "To the Point" quilt (it is the cover image for her class). In this class, Jacquie is teaching how to cut big isosceles triangles and insert them into a background fabric. She is also using her crazy piecing technique to make one of the triangles. I really wanted to give this technique a go. Over all, this lesson was perfect for my project.
I quickly cut my triangles; just changed the size of them, sewed the sashing, placed them on my design wall to play around with the placement. Here are a few versions:

 V1: Two up, two down

 V2: One down, one up, two down

 V3: One down, one up

 V4: One down, one up-First solid triangle is placed slightly lower than in the V3

I really want to finish this before Christmas but just can't decide which version to choose-can you help me? Also, this will be quite a large table topper: 30"x35" like a mini quilt.

Love this scrappy triangle!

So, this is my WIP for this week.

Also, in case you missed it, Molli Sparkles is collecting hashtag quilt blocks to make quilts to the families of those who lost their lives in the recent Sydney siege. 

It was such a tragic, heartbreaking event. I have family members who live in Sydney and they could have easily been in that cafe on that morning. As Molli says "it will never be enough but it will be something" and I am joining in too to support. I have made two blocks today and cut some more fabric for another four.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Love,

Nurdan

Monday Makers! #17

Hi!
I hope you had a wonderful week. Mine was filled with happy pre-Christmas gatherings with friends and fellow quilty guild members.

My local modern quilt guild came together for Christmas drinks and some quilty chat last Monday. It was such a lovely and relaxing night. We ate, drank, chatted and exchanged some gifts too. Every guild member brought a gift to the value of $10 of quilty goods. We didn't allocate a person before hand; instead, each member had a lucky dip which made it even more fun. I received a super cute, super mini quilt and a spool of white Aurifil thread which I needed so much since I ran out of mine on the very same day!

Isn't it the cutest Christmas tree!

There was another surprise waiting for me...A few weeks ago, my guild had an exhibition and I joined the exhibition with three quilts. Apparently, there was a lucky door prize and I won it!!

I might have squeaked a bit when I was presented the box of 10 spools of Aurifil thread- Folk Story by Sarah Fielke! I love, love , love those colours!

Now to Monday Makers!

Today I have started working on my table runner which I hope I will finish before Christmas! You can see the table runner I made for the last Christmas here.

These will go on an ash coloured background. I didn't really plan how big I want it to be; I am playing by ear. Hopefully it will turn out something nice LOL.

Are you ready to show me your finishes from last week and the new projects you are starting today?

Here are the linky rules: 

1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- DONE!!- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up

Table runner

This table runner was my Christmas project but I was able to finish it just a couple of days ago. You know what  I  they say: the best project is the finished project :-)

Unfortunately, this is the best photo I could take. It was such an overcast day and there wasn't enough light coming on to my table.  I was also rushing so I didn't have a chance to try different locations for the photos. I even left some food smudges on the tiles for your viewing pleasure...

Even though I didn't enjoy quilting this table runner because of constantly turning corners, I am quite happy with the result. I like the reverse tree effect in between the trees.