Spicing Up the Kitchen + Single Girl

What a FUN project.

I thought these 4 blocks were going to become place mats, but the size was just too large. Unless my partner has a VERY wide table, two place mats opposite each other would have hung off of the table by several inches. That's not so convenient!  I loved how the table runner turned out. I used 4 rings linked vertically. Though it is a little wide for a traditional table runner, It will be nice for laying out dishes. Or, if my partner wants, she can use it as a vertical wall hanging in her kitchen.

Here's the table runner before I popped it into the washer and dryer:

 

I wanted to accentuate the fun quilted pattern, so I went for the crinkly look.   After the washer & dryer:

I used a paper-piecing technique, which turned out to be pretty useful.  It made cutting the fabric a breeze.  But be prepared, sewing the blocks using  paper-piecing does take more time than just sewing pre-cut pieces together.   So if you are doing a king-sized quilt it might make sense to go the individual template route.  I am tempted to try a block or two with the conventional method just to decide which is more efficient.  

One clear advantage is with managing all of your fabrics.  I suck at keeping a bunch of fabric pieces organized enough to sew them together in the correct order.  Reading some of the posts over here, it seems like that is universally a pretty challenging part of this Single Girl pattern.  With paper piecing, i kept a lump of 5" squares of fabric next to my machine.  As I sewed each arch, I simply grabbed the fabric that inspired me at the moment.  No sorting and organizing required.

I think the bliss fabric turned out wonderfully on the back.  The red print is quite striking against the aqua dots. 

I followed Denyse's quilting guidelines, but did machine quilting instead of hand quilting. 



If you remember, I had some sample blocks where I tried out the shape of my paper-pieced curved template to make sure that I had the size right.

Well, I turned them into 4 pot holders with two different bindings and quilting designs. This was a fun side-project and should make a nice accent to the Pièce de résistance.

I hope my spicing up the kitchen partner likes her new set!  I am still planning on making a king-sized single girl quilt for my bed, but need to decide on color schemes. Stay tuned for some of my ideas.