Zakka Style Shamrock Table Runner {a finished project}

Maybe it’s the warmer (finally!) weather or my love of the color green, but after making those Shamrock Pillows with the kids, I needed to sew something else green.  So, I fooled around with more applique, linen, and some hand stitching, and a Zakka Style Table Runner was born.

I used green fabric from my stash, including Jennifer Paganelli, Connecting Threads, True Colors, and a mystery green of unknown origin.

Does it look better with purple?

Or green? 

I like the simple look of the straight line stitching in natural colored thread on the applique and the gray perle thread outline on the linen.  What do you think the frog in the photo above is thinking?

I stitched only through the batting, with no backing, so the back is simply a piece of linen with edgestitching.  I went back and forth about using quilting weight cotton for the back and putting on binding, but I think the plain linen without binding is the perfect compliment to the front.

I used a 1/4” walking foot to do the edgestitching and it turned out very nice and even.  The finished size is 9.5” x 28.5”.

Originally these shamrock squares were going to be a pillow.  So I had a few squares left over.  I already gave away the finished runner, so this new one will be for our table.

These shamrocks better bring us some luck for spring weather.  Snow is in the forecast again!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

Polaroid Quilt

This summer I participated in a very cool swap for little Polaroid blocks on Debbie’s blog A Quilter’s Table.   Then a bee mate, Lindsey, very generously sent me dozens of little blocks after she caught the Polaroid bug, too. 

This quilt measures 45” x 51”, hopefully just the right size for a three year old’s lap quilt.  I used three different Kona solids (chartreuse, marine, and ash) for the background fabrics and a cute frog print I won in a giveaway for the border—thank you, Leona!

I just love the little dogs on the back, although for the record I am a cat person.

My favorite part of this quilt is the little boy’s name appliqued on the front.  It was kind of a last minute solution to not planning the number of Polaroids I would need to make the columns even and then coming up short.  One of the most difficult parts of the quilt planning was picking “boy appropriate” pictures since little things sometimes escape my attention.

I was kind of undecided as to how I would quilt this one, but I ended up going with just fmq squiggles which is always my go-to choice.  Since I’m gifting this quilt I wanted it to look its best and not do too much “learning” on it.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.  What have you been working on this week?