Quilted Living Book

Have you ever seen a copy of the book "Quilted Living".  The book is filled to the brim with so many inspiring projects!  You will have a hard time deciding which project you want to do first!  Mix and match design elements of more than one quilt to create an entirely different look for a new project!

There are 10 designs inside the book and after a bit of deciding and undeciding,  I chose "Liberty".  There was a quilt and a tablerunner made from the design and I chose to create the tablerunner.  I modified it a little in order to fussy cut the fabrics for the inner light colored strips.  I wanted to showcase the farm animals in the print so I cut the strips 4" instead of 2".  I also continued the border to the ends so it wrapped the entire tablerunner.

As you can see the model in the book is made from red/white and blue fabrics.  My first initial thought was to stay with the patriotic theme but my kitchen decor is pigs and apples with black appliances so I knew I wanted to  choose fabrics that would compliment my breakfast area.  I wanted to be able to use the runner year round.

My husband and I collect pottery from the Western part of North Carolina and some parts of GA, SC  and AL.  When I was getting ready to make the photos I decided to show off a few pieces of our pottery with the tablerunner.  A few extra quilted pieces never hurts anything either, right.

First up to adorn the runner, allow me to show off a couple of our many pigs we have collected over the years.  Albert Hodge's swirl pig and David Bellar's round belly pig.  The teapots in the display are also all by David Bellar.  Last, but certainly not least, is Charlie Lisk's red pig in the chair, one of our favorites!

This is actually how we will use the tablerunner. The water pitcher is by Kim Ellington and the pasta bowl and mini dressing pitcher are by Sylvia Harrison. The tablerunner is a perfect backdrop for these pottery pieces!  These pottery pieces have sat on the table for quite a long while and now they have a gorgeous runner to add a softness to all the hardscape.

I free hand quilted the runner with square spiral, ribbon candy, cross hatching and meandering.  All of this was done free form so when you look closely, you will see nothing is really even. And rightly so, when you think about farm living.  There is nothing like the carefree nature of living on a farm surrounded by nature and quilts!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!  I hope I have inspired you to create something today!