Pink Lemonade Spring Runners

It seems that everyone in North America has had a longgggg winter! What a better way to celebrate spring than with a new spring runner.  This is the first of a series. I just hope that the others will be done before spring is over!

Last summer, before my brother and his family left for Denmark, my niece came over and picked a bunch of very nice fabrics that we were supposed to make something with....well, as life goes, we ran out of time before she left. In the middle of the winter blahs, I took out that fabric and started planning a spring runner for her parents and a wall hanging for her.

Set the Table, published by Martingale

Pink Lemonade Runner

The pattern comes from a book published by Martingale's Set the Table. I bought the book because of all of the quilting  that are used on the runners. It's a great way of learning more quilting techniques on small projects.

Here's the finished runner. Those fabrics and colours remind me of pink lemonade. I love it!

I had a great time quilting the wall hanging. It was just the perfect size for the cross hatch quilting.  As I went on Google to look up the term, I noticed all kinds of advice on cross hatch quilting - I guess I should have checked before attempting the runner! The runner is not cross hatched because my lines were not straight enough - the diamonds that look so pretty on the wall hanging would have revealed all of the imperfections, so the runner is quilted in one direction.

Wall Hanging for Anna

I also had a great time making a label for Anna's project. It's a 3 inch paper-pieced crocus from the fabrics used on the runner.

Paper-pieced Crocus Label

The package is being sent today. A little late for Easter but still in time for spring!

What I learned:

• Cross hatching a small project is fun but cross hatching a runner is really, really tedious, especially when it goes wonky!
• My Google search indicated that you should use masking tape to mark the project and then do the cross hatching; while one of my quilting friends said that you should quilt a few lines in one direction and then a few lines from the other direction to keep the quilt even. I tried to use the guide that comes with my walking foot, but it kept moving. Apparently I have to tighten it somewhere. I'll have to look into that!