Today we feature Part 1 of our APPLES & QUILTS ON THURSDAYS. Well, we kind of already showed you an apple quilt on Monday when we kicked off with our APPLE-A-DAY-WITH-JANOME …… call that a bonus opening special!
Did you perhaps go as crazy as I did buying up fruit & veggie prints way back when?? Perhaps not? Well, I still have oodles of it in my stash and this was one of my attempts at Stashbusting.
This table runner was super easy to make….no pattern required. I cut 4 1/2 inch strips of apple & pear fabrics (full WOF) and sewed them together lengthwise using my trusty JANOME sewing machine with 1/4 inch foot. See our Monthly blog series on FEET & ACCESSORIES coming up in October 2014 for an in-depth look at all our JANOME 1/4 inch feet options. (you could also search the archives as I know we have featured 1/4 inch feet many times). If you have the JANOME MC6600p OR 7700 with Acufeed or our newer models with ACUFEED FLEX, I would highly recommend using the Acufeed/Acufeed Flex with 1/4 inch: the seams are longer than usual pieced seams and upper as well as lower feeding of the fabric will give much better results.
A black cotton fabric border was added all the way around. This was 5 inches wide.
I then decided to do something a little different: I ironed fusible web with the paper release onto the wrong side of a long strip of 2 1/2 inch wide print fabric. In our sample, I used the pear fabric but it could just as easily have been the apple fabric. I then used my scallop ruler to mark the scallops onto the release paper. I don’t recall the brand of my ruler….someone gave it to me about 10 years ago. I have only used it a few times but when I did I was very glad I owned it! Google “scallop rulers” to see what is available. Ensure you have enough of the scallop strip to go all the way around the black border as well as for the mitering at the corners of the runner.
Cut the scallops on the markings & peel away the release paper. Position the scallops towards the inside of the runner with the straight raw edge on the outer raw edge of the black border. At each corner, I folded a neat miter and sewed this before securing the scallop strip to the border. Fuse in place with an iron when you are satisfied with the placement of all the scallops and your mitered corners.
Stitch around the scallops using a large applique/blanket stitch and black thread to give the folk/country kitchen look to the runner. I like to use our Janome double blanket stitch as it gives a bold look and enhances the cottage/country feel of this runner. Almost looks hand stitched. I adjust the SW to make longer “teeth” on the applique stitch and also increased the stitch length to have a little more space between the “teeth”.
Alternatively: sandwich the runner top, batting & backing & THEN do the applique stitch which becomes part of the quilting process. The rest of the quilting was free motion stippling on the apple, pear & black fabric using the JANOME CONVERTIBLE FREE MOTION FOOT SET. (available for 7mm & 9mm machines and HIGH & LOW shank machines) I also used the JANOME DITCH QUILTING FOOT (also available for ALL our machine models: please ask your local JANOME dealer to advise you which is the correct one for your JANOME machine model) to stitch a decorative stitch in the ditches. I used my favorite “rope ladder” stitch and black thread to have cohesion with the scallop applique stitches.
Lastly, I added the binding all the way around the edge using the same pear fabric as the applique scallop border as I wanted that to “flow” all the way to the edge.
Are you getting into the mood for edible Fall apples & pears yet?
DO KEEP VISITING OUR janomelife BLOG EVERY DAY AS WE HAVE MORE COMING UP TOMORROW and every day this month.
Janome Life 