Bed Runner

I have been working on a quilt for our new house. Not for me but for my big girl. We have been very lucky parents; our girls have never asked to have their room decorated in all the years they have been alive! With this in mind we are trying to make sure they have full choice for their new rooms when we finish building our new house. 

I don't normally choose fabrics for a quilt, quilting for me is something that uses up left overs, but I had to choose something for my Minerva next month and I just don't want anymore clothes right now. The fabrics are a range of Micheal Millar cotton quilting patterns.

There is a palette of grey, navy and mustard in geometric prints.  She has chosen an Orla Keily Navy and white duvet cover so we were looking for something to inject a bit of colour but not clash with a retro print.

I didn't really have a pattern, I just wanted to make sure that there were no scraps left over so I cut bricks from all of the fabrics and used the last of my Minerva cotton from a seat pew cover to add some solid colour cohesion to the design. I did try laying them out as a brick wall but with the prints, it looked a bit too 'busy' so I returned to the idea of having them patched corner to corner.

I made strips which were sewn into a rectangular topper. It wasn't quite wide enough so I used some fabric which I had cut from shortening her ready to hang curtains to add solid borders. I saw the curtains in a sale bin for £40 and decided I just couldn't be bothered to make a pair to compete with that kind of price. All of the cut offs have been used now which feels like an extra bargain.

 My daughter and I worked together to stick a calico backing to the floor with parcel tape; layer on the batting then smooth out the topper. It is hard on the knees but we didn't have a large enough table.

We safety pinned all the layers together. I decided to hand quilt it because I always get puckers on my machine because my sewing machine has a very small aperture to shove a quilt through. 

Heidi made a template from a cereal packet using an Orla Keily storage jar as a guide. Together we marked out leaves and stems using a water soluble pen. 

A couple of nights of evening hand stitching and I knew we had made the right decision. Finally, I added a binding which was left over from another quilt to enclose all the edges. It has quite a loose top and bottom border which is not quilted and this gives it a relaxed blanket feel. I washed the whole quilt because I like the crumpled effect it gives. She was thrilled to try it out on our spare room bed and helped me put the duvet cover on.

Good morning!

Goodnight!

Another item to pack away for our house move. I am getting quite excited about opening all of the bin bags of home furnishings I have been making but we will have to wait another year yet, so much more house building work to do.

Thanks for dropping in. Stay cosy. Jo xxxx