Good Things Are Always Worth Waiting For

"To everything there is season ..."


Last fall was the season of the Fall Table Runner Swap on the Quilt & Needle Forum. My partner was Susie in Ohio. We exchanged messages to get to know each other better and to get an idea of what to make for your buddy. I must say I was very fortunate to have Susie for a buddy! Life got in the way a bit for both of us and we missed the mailing deadline and then the winter holidays were upon us and our table runners did not get to grace each other's tables before the year ran out. This week we both finally got the finishing touches on our runners and they passed each other in the mail. The beautiful scrappy Maple Leaf table runner at the top is the one I received from Susie. Thank you, Susie! It is just perfect for my table. You make the type of country home scrappy quilts I aspire to be able to put together. What a wonderful collection of fabrics, placed so ably and they all work together gloriously. :-)

Below is the runner I made for Susie ... who told me how much she likes purple. I had a nice piece of the purple border leaf fabric from Jackie Robinson of Maywood Studios that I had never found a purpose for and I knew that this was just what I wanted to feature in my runner for Susie. Choosing a pattern is always difficult for me, but my family had given me EQ6 for my birthday in September, so I decided I wanted to make my first design creation to be this table runner. So after much happy playing with EQ's blocks and features, I cam up with this design. Here is the EQ sketch of my pattern ...





For the other fabrics I went to my favorite local quilt shop and was actually fortunate enough to find the ends of bolts of a few other of the Maywood Studio leaf fabrics on clearance. Lucky find! So I chose these for the rest of the fabrics for my runner.

Here are some photos of my working on the quilting ... always the hardest part for me. This time it was made more difficult by the fact I had problems with muscle pains in my feet and could not use the foot pedal on my sewing machine for over a month. I was sew unhappy about that. A change in medications has brought much needed relief and I am happy to be sewing again.

I tried something new ... outline the leaf motifs with my open toe foot. Above is a photo of the runner completed and ready to mail and, lastly, one of the label I made for the back.



I hope Susie will enjoy her table runner as much as I know I will treasure the one she made for me.

No matter what the season ... a gift made by hand and from the heart of a friend always arrives at just the right moment in life!


" ... and a time for every purpose under heaven."

:-) Pat