Marathon Sewing Session

I've been back from Colorado for several days now, but have been trying to get the work backlog down to a manageable level so I haven't made it into the sewing room until this weekend. During the trip I did make a fair bit of progress on the Shirley Temple Dress, finishing the buttonhole stitch on both armholes and starting on the neckline. Now however, I've set that aside (something I do frequently) and started a new project, having just realized that Mother's day is just around the corner, on May 8! My mother lives in an assisted living facility in which all the residents hang a personalized name sign on their doors. I've been wanting to make something for Mom for some time, but never could come up with an idea until recently.

 
Two weeks ago, I happened to be looking at the website of a local quilt shop which had a picture of a table runner made from the book, Everymonth by Jeri Kelly. This book has a table runner pattern for, as the title states, every month of the year.

The quilt shop, A Time to Sew in Mission Viejo, made up kits for the May pattern, shown in the center top row. You can visit their website here.

 

This is the kit, which includes everything but thread and batting. I certainly have enough batting scraps for this project left over when I was doing some serious quilting several years ago.

 

Since this is a wall hanging, and not a table runner, I decided to make it slightly longer than half the specified length, but with only one of birdhouse scene. The directions specified appliqueing the fabric to the striped background using a narrow satin stitch, but I've always had problems with that method. Instead, I used a small blanket stitch, L=1.5, W=1.5 in colors to match the fabric.

Then I cut out the letters of my Mom's name using the extra blue fabric, and appliqued them above the birdhouse. I sewed the front, backing and batting together, turned all right side out, closed up the turn opening, and topstitched 1/2 inch around the edges to make it look a bit like a binding. After adding a hanging loop I was done. I hope she likes it! I may make the July runner as well, it has a star in a sort of a fireworks motif, to celebrate Independence Day.