Megan's Knitted Star Quilt + Janita's Wintry Batik Table Runner

 Hello, there, Quilty Peeps!  I hope you are all staying warm (or cool, if you live in a hot climate) and are managing the hubbub of the holiday season with a level head, a grateful heart, and an overflowing glass of eggnog (if you’re into that sort of thing).  I am 95% finished with my gift shopping, the trees are up and decorated thanks to Bernie, and Christmas carols are looping through my brain like jolly elvish ear worms.  How about y’all?

I did finish the custom quilting on Jingle but I’m waiting to share it until it's labeled, bound, and is hanging on my wall.  Meanwhile, I have a couple of clients' quilts with seasonal flair to share with you today.

Megan's Knitted Star Quilt

Check out this striking Knitted Star quilt made by my client Megan!  The pattern is by Brittany Lloyd of Lo & Behold Stitchery, and you can purchase the pattern alone or a complete kit here (this post contains affiliate links).  

Megan's 64 x 64 Knitted Star Quilt with Gems 2 Quilting Design

Megan used a Kona Solids kit pairing Kona White with Gotham Gray.  I've seen other versions of this quilt made up with a white background and red and green snowflakes, red background with green or white snowflakes, which also look great.  Brittany hosted an eight week Knitted Star QAL (quilt-along) on her blog when she released this pattern two years ago, and those step-by-step tutorials are still available here if any of you are interested in making this project.  If you are local to Charlotte, North Carolina, Megan is hoping to offer this quilt as an in-person class at Quilt Patch Fabrics in Matthews.  Call the shop at 704-821-7554 if you're interested.  One more "helpful hint" from me is that this pattern, like many of Brittany's designs, involves cutting and piecing many, many strips of fabric and the accuracy of your cutting (and piecing) those strips will have a huge impact on how easily this goes together for you.  Accuquilt is offering their strip cutting dies at steep discounts right now, and being able to cut 24 perfectly straight, exact width strips in a single pass would not only speed you through the cutting process so you could start sewing sooner, it would also improve accuracy and reduce the possibility of cutting mistakes that can happen when rotary cutting hundreds of strips.  

I quilted Megan's Knitted Star with a pattern called Gems 2 that creates a wonderful illusion of depth, an effect that is further enhanced by the loft of Megan's favorite batting, Quilters Dream Wool.  The thread is Glide in White.

Detail of Gems 2 on Megan's Knitted Star

The thread was chosen to disappear against the white patchwork snowflakes.  Had I used a dark gray or black thread to disappear into the background, it would have detracted from the bold graphic design of the patchwork.  

We auditioned some pale gray and silver thread options, but they just looked like dirty pencil lines against the Kona White fabric.

Quilting Detail, Stars and Dimples

One of the cool things about using a quilting design like this one with a lofty batting is that you get not just an illusion of dimensionality but actual variation across the quilt between areas where the loft is compressed by closer lines of quilting versus areas that puff up more because the quilting lines are spaced farther apart.  See that cute little star detail in the photo above?  Those little stars flatten out the batting more that the wider spaced lines surrounding it, and there are puffy "dimples" where those quilting lines nearly converge but never touch.  Not sure how well that conveys in photos but it looks really cool in person!

Megan's Knitted Star Top Prior to Quilting

And above, that's what Megan's Knitted Star top looked like before I quilted it.  Already gorgeous!  This is another one getting added to my mile-long list of quilts I want to make someday!

Janita's Batik Table Runner

This next share is a quickie, not because it's less loved but because it's less well documented in my photo roll.  This was one of four quilts I was working on for Janita and in my haste to get the next quilt on the frame, I somehow neglected getting that "finally finished" full length photo of her table runner.  I have to share it with you anyway because I just love her mix of richly saturated batik fabrics that have a subtle winter holiday vibe, but without being explicitly Christmas or Chanukah themed.  Very versatile; these are fabrics that will work well into January and February, until she's ready to swap it out for Spring.

Quilting Feather Ferns on Janita's Table Runner

Janita's table runner measured 30" wide by 83" long and I quilted it with Feather Ferns E2E.  I used Quilters Dream 80/20 Cotton/Poly batting and the thread is Glide in Warm Grey 4.  That is the only picture I have of the quilting, unfortunately!  We chose that quilting design because several of the batik prints had a similar leafy vine at a much smaller scale, and the overall effect of the finished piece is like a wintry forest blanketed in icicles and snow.  

Janita's Table Runner Prior to Quilting

Thanks for choosing me to quilt for you, Megan and Janita!  😊

MoMa Wants HOW Much for These Stockings?!!

And now, for some silliness -- or some inspiration, or some enabling.  Take your pick.  When I first saw these patchwork Christmas stockings for sale in the Museum of Modern Art's online gift shop, they were priced at $95 each.  The price has since been reduced to $75 each, but most of you reading this are probably reacting like I did, knowing that even paying full retail for the fabric from our local quilt shops, we could make these stockings for pennies to the dollar.  Seriously!

From a Factory in India, Still Priced at $95 or $75 Apiece

The back of the stockings aren't pieced or even made from any of the fabrics used in the stocking fronts.  There is no cuff, the strip piecing would go together quickly and they are finished off with a large scale meander quilting that is described by the museum as "the artists's signature squiggle quilting," as though she personally invented the stipple quilting that millions of quilters have been doing for at least 30 years.  I don't mean to trash the designer because I actually love the simplicity of her designs and the fun modern color palette she used.  My beef is with the deceptive marketing copy that claims these stockings are hand pieced and hand quilted, which is absolutely and unequivocally false advertising.  I expect more integrity from a museum shop, frankly!  I'm not sharing these stockings just to complain about them, though.  I don't expect to find bargains at museum gift shops and I like shopping there anyway, knowing that my purchases are helping to support the work of the museum.  If you're looking for a last-minute gift idea, or you promised to make someone a set of "handmade Christmas stockings" and you're running short on time, by all means order these from MoMa and I won't judge you!  

But I'm also sharing these stockings for any of you out there who might be looking for ideas of quick homemade gifts that you could still reasonably accomplish for the holidays.  It doesn't have to be super complicated!  A simple design like this in bright solid fabrics is sure to be a hit, especially with those young adults on your gift list who are just starting out in their first apartment or first home.  In modern interiors, less is more.  If anyone has a favorite pattern for making simple Christmas stockings, tree skirts, or table runner projects for gifting, please share your source in the comments.  

And now, for the enabling bit: if you've had your eye on a snazzy new sewing machine that is on promotion for the holidays and you're on the fence about asking Santa to snag one for you, I give you permission to do the "MoMa Math" when calculating how much money you will SAVE by sewing Christmas stockings, quilts and clothing with your new machine instead of buying them.  Mwahahaha!  

And on that note of wickedness, I'm signing off and getting back to my own projects.  I'll be linking up with my favorite linky parties, listed on my left blog sidebar.  Happy quilting, everyone!