More completed projects!

Like most quilters, I have quite the stash of fabrics.  Most are fat quarters, some yardage that was purchased just because, lots of pieces that were leftovers from other projects.  Any time that I make a project using from my stash, I feel like it is a freebie, because I didn't spend any money specifically on that project!

"In the Meadow" table runner was one of those projects!  All the fabrics, batting, and threads were in my stash!  Jana Davidson of Turnberry Lane Patterns created this beauty!  I had the embroidery done on this one, I just needed to make the blocks, put it together, quilt, and bind.

This was a workshop project from a Laura Wasilowski workshop sponsored by Decatur Quilters Guild a few years ago. I had it all done, except for a bit of thread work, quilting, and binding.

I felt like it needed some detail between the center and border.  I had used a scalloped rotary cutter to create the edge of the border, but couldn't think of a hand embroidery stitch that I could accomplish that would adequately accent it.  Then it struck me that I could use a heavier thread and machine stitch an accent!

In my thread stash I had a spool of Wonderfil Spagetti thread (12 wt) that I had purchased when Susan Cleveland had taught at our guild several years ago.  It was the perfect color!  It is the turquoise thread on the left.  The middle thread is Superior Threads Magnifico (40 wt), which I used to quilt the border.  The right thread that is crossing over is Superior Threads Kimono Silk (100 wt), which I used to do the echo quilting in the body of the quilt

. Using the Spagetti thread and the double needle on the left, I created a double line of stitching around the scallops on the inner edge of the border.  I felt like it needed a bit more.  I experimented with some decorative stitches, but didn't like the look.  I decided on just doing a zigzag stich in the double line.  Sometimes simpler has a bigger impact.

I was experiencing major tension problems doing the zigzag.  I was using a #100 Topstitch needle.  Despite any tension changes made on the top, I was getting erratic skipped stitches.  Then I remembered that I could change the bobbin tension by threading the bobbin thread through the bobbin finger.  Voila!  That was the answer!