Four Hours

I am in love with wavy lines. My customer's choice of wavy lines for her fish quilt turned out to be just perfect! I had so much fun quilting it. The back shows the quilting a bit better:

Up next is the latest Guild project, 8 lovely table runners:

I can fit 4 on one piece of yardage for the backing. The backing is 120" X 45". Each table runner is at least 50" long, so the runners have to be loaded down the length of the yardage. Thankfully, each runner is no deeper than 22". So I can fit 2 deep. Make sense? 

Here are the first 2. I am using up various pieces of batting that get cut off for larger quilts:

One of my favorite types of quilting for table runners is dense pantographs. These pantos are usually too labor intensive for a larger-sized quilt. But they are just peachy for table runners. In my mind, the flatness from a dense pantograph is what a table runner wants.

So for this table runner I wanted to pick up on the long, leafy shapes in the border fabric. The perfect pantograph has been waiting in the wings for just such a project:

                                         

"Lavish Leaves" by Celine Spader.

My thread conversation led me to choose Superior Kimono Silk 100 wt. in color #375 on top. The color is hard to describe, but absolutely perfect for the runner. It's sort of a taupe/blush color. Superior calls it "Zen Zen". In the bobbin I used Aurifil 40 wt. cotton in a blush color, #2420:

I used a 3.5 needle and 11 SPI, and the tension was beautiful. I love the texture that this leafy design lays down:

Now, normally 4 table runners would be easily finished in one day. But only the one above got finished. That was yesterday. And here is why...

After finishing up the leafy runner, I faced this hot pink runner with purpose: hearts! I decided to use the pantograph "Hearts-A-Flutter" by Lisa Calle. Which I already own:

There was only one problem. It is the 7" size (2 rows, 7" each row) which is way too large for a table runner. 

This is the point at which the day turned on me. And I had to ask myself at the end of it all: "What's the difference between determination and obsession?"

I discovered it's a very fine line. I'm going to guess that the difference lies in what I was willing to sacrifice in order to achieve something. I can sympathize with people who deal with obsessive disorders now. It seemed so rational, yesterday, to set my sights on the exact design I wanted to use. In my mind, no other design would do. 

Four hours later, I was looking back on a day that produced only one completed table runner. And not even a custom quilted table runner. And not even the hot pink one. I had to wonder if any sane longarmer out there would've used 4 hours to buy, download, resize, print, line up, and join 9 sheets of paper with tons of tape! For a table runner!

Sheesh.

But I will say that my obsessive behavior saved me 2 things:

1. About $10.

2. Time that I didn't have to wait for a pantograph to arrive via USPS.

I am afraid to calculate what it cost me. So I won't. Instead I will put it in the past and smile when I see this:

And this:

I absolutely positively love it. The smaller-sized hearts and swirls did exactly what I was seeing in my mind - flattening the runner and adding an element of cuteness. 

I had fun with the thread, by using Isacord #1940 on top, which is a neon raspberry sherbet color. In the bobbin I used Aurifil cotton 50 wt. #2425:

The backing fabric for these table runners is bright white. So I'm taking the opportunity to use colors in the bobbin that will show up, adding another side to the runners. So far the thread combinations are producing wonderful backs! 

These 2 are the next in line. I am planning to custom quilt these with very simple lines. When I get these 2 done, I hope to remove all 4 and show the thread on the back. 

: )