This year's table runner!

One year I made 13 of these table runners as Christmas presents for various friends and family. They were quick (fairly!) and easy to do and very effective when finished. The one I kept for myself was going to be blue but because my sister changed her colour scheme at the last minute I ended up with a very elegant one in grey and black with lovely pinky red flowers. However this wasn't Christmassy enough to use as a sample for my recent workshop so I made another one. In fact I made two! The one you see above plus one in Christmas fabrics in green and red. The one above is a piece of a Japanese cotton print with sand and rust strips in silk dupion. They catch the light beautifully and look different depending on where they are viewed from. I hadn't made this version of a table runner for a couple of years so brought it out of retirement. I'm glad I did as I've now ended up with one that goes with my colour scheme! There is a silver lining to everything I find.
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I have become addicted to free machine applique. I spent the whole of yesterday evening machining my lemon block and got quite carried away. My Bernina 180 is a joy to sew with and even manages to work with some of the odd embroidery silks that I have bought in the market which come from the far east somewhere. These threads are in lovely colours but not known for their ease of sewing being liable to fray at the drop of a hat. I find if I use a metallic or top stitch needle they behave themselves.
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My copy of The Quilting Arts Book arrived last week and it is a wonderful book full of great ideas and techniques. Just the kind of book to sit in front of the fire dipping into and being inspired. Also I had a book on quick makes taken from the Threads magazine. I have always enjoyed the page in the magazine where they showed a quick make and this book has collected many of these together. One that quickly caught my eye was the pattern for a small origami fabric box. So quick to do. I cut out a square of paper and practised in front of the fire while having coffee with Martin and my mum this afternoon and it took all of five minutes! Cool! Obviously this was very basic but once one has bondawebbed some fabric to paper and done some embellishing on the fabric it wouldn't take much longer to create the real thing. And then embellishing the lid would be fun too! The one I did made a 3" box but I shall try other sizes. Pictures when they are done but don't hold your breath as I won't have any time for a few days. And instead of fabric one could bondaweb hand-made paper to a backing instead. Oh the possibilities are endless!