Tag: table runner

Done and Delivered

Way back in July I was working on a runner for my daughter’s birthday. It didn’t get done by her birthday, which was expected due to starting it too close to the date. And then I ran into the problem of the length of the table is longer than anticipated, which caused other issues. I have been working on it over the last few months, but part of the problem was deciding exactly was I was doing. I finally figured it out and finished it!

To make the runner longer I planned to put an insert in the center, but what that insert was going to look like I had trouble deciding. I had the edgings done for a normal rectangular runner back in July, though I never attached them because I didn’t know how I was going to end up cutting the material. I finally came up with an oval for the insert.

birthday edging pinned on wandasknottythoughts
Center edging pinned on

This picture shows the center with the edging pinned to the material, so it looks pretty wonky. You can see that it is pretty large. One of the issues of coming up with the shape was to somehow make a pattern of the size I wanted. I finally used a serving platter. Then I had to sew it, oh boy.

The center edging pattern isn’t exactly like the end pieces due to the curve. I also used size 10 for the blue (Wedgewood Dark, Lizbeth #656) in it where the end pieces I had used size 20, though the red (Terra Cotta, Lizbeth #673) and white (Natural, Lizbeth #602) were in size 10. Why I had to make all the edgings so complicated I don’t know! Simple rings and chains would have gone so much faster!

After I got the center this far I kind of stalled out. I was afraid of making a mistake with the truck material or coming up with something I couldn’t finish. My sewing skills are minimal, mostly just straight(ish) lines. The two sides were going to be attached to the curved center. What had I gotten myself into? I hemmed and hawed with this for weeks – ok, months – before just doing it. I did cut out a paper pattern first, to test out the look.

Truck runner center on wandasknottythoughts
Truck runner center

I finally sewed the two sides and figured a way to attach them to the center. I’m hoping the tatting and the cute material will distract everyone from looking too closely at the sewing, LOL!

Truck runner edgings sewn on wandasknottythoughts
Truck runner edgings sewn on

The ends were much easier! Why didn’t I keep the center edging more like this? I just have to keep changing things up!

Truck runner finished on wandasknottythoughts
Patriotic truck runner finished

This is the finished runner on my table. It turned out nice. Her table is a rectangle so the ends will hang just a little differently. This patriotic truck-themed runner birthday gift was supposed to be for July and Independence Day, now she’ll have it for next year. I had jokingly told her I might have it done for Veteran’s Day, November 11, which amazingly I did. I finished it yesterday and took it to her today so she could put it out for tomorrow.

My daughter loves it! She sent me pictures of it on her table and it looks good. I’m so happy she’s happy with it and that I was able to deliver it before Christmas. Or next July.

Tomorrow, November 11, is Veteran’s Day here in the USA. To all the veterans out there, thank you for your service.

A few facts about Veteran’s Day from History.com

Veterans Day occurs on November 11 every year in the United States in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I, known as Armistice Day.

Veterans Day commemorates veterans of all wars

Great Britain, France, Australia and Canada also commemorate the veterans of World War I and World War II on or near November 11th: Canada has Remembrance Day, while Britain has Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday of November).

Birthday Table Runner

I mentioned in my last blog post about making a table runner for my daughter’s birthday. I didn’t get it done in time for the 4th of July or her birthday, but I thought I would have it done by now. But, no, I don’t. It is taking longer than expected, but not because I didn’t have the edgings done. It got a lot more complicated.

Colors and material for edging on wandasknottythoughts
Colors and material for edging

I found this cute patriotic material at JoAnn’s in June. My daughter usually decorates for the different holidays and I thought she’d like it. Then I had to see if I had thread that would work with it. Christmas-y red wouldn’t work, and I didn’t think that white would work well, either. I had these colors on hand, and think they will work as an edging. They won’t be laying on top of the material, just hanging off the edge.

Birthday runner edging maybe on wandasknottythoughts
Birthday runner edging start

I started with the red, Lizbeth 673 Terra Cotta in size 10. The first two rows came out more open than I expected, so I added the blue, Lizbeth 656 Wedgewood Dark in size 20. That was interesting, adding it to the middle of the two completed rows. It came out okay. Then a row of Lizbeth 602 Natural in size 10. I thought I was done.

Then I looked at the length of the material I planned on using, a full two yards, 72 inches. With a half inch hem on each end it would have a finished length of 71 inches. Maybe the edging was a little short? So I added a row, which didn’t add a lot of length but gave a more finished look (?) to it.

Birthday runner edging finished on wandasknottythoughts
Birthday runner edging finished

Yay! Ready to sew up the material and add the edging.

Then I confirmed the length of her table. 70 inches. Hmm. I’m not liking how the finished runner would end up laying on the table.

My daughter and I are discussing what we want to do now. Options would be: 1) cut the material short and make a shorter runner with all of it on the table, or 2) make an insert to lengthen it so the ends hang off the edges of the table. We’ve come up with an idea, now to play with it and see where we end.

Now that more tatting is in the forecast, I needed to order more threads. I’m almost out of the Terra Cotta and I don’t have the Wedgewood in size 10, which I’m thinking I’ll need. I had a bit of a panic when I went to order these at Handy Hands and found out the Terra Cotta in size 10 was out of stock. Luckily, Tatting Corner still had some. Yay!

At the rate I’m going, my daughter will be getting it for Christmas!

“Energy spent now preparing for tomorrow is sure to bear tasty fruit.” Fortune cookie

Marlis Edging

Marlis Edging on wandasknottythoughts
Marlis Edging in Lizbeth #698 Fudge Med and #603 Ecru size 10
This is another edging I made last fall.  Yes, it is similar to Kamryn because I had an idea in mind that I was working toward and Marlis was one of the first versions of that idea.  I’m not all that happy with it, though once I added the second row where it is attached the material I liked it a lot better.  The colors look pretty good with the runner material, though.After I had made Marlis and Kamryn – and a few other edgings – I saw a picture of an edging that is along the lines I originally was headed.  Fox over at tat-ology made ‘Gardenia’ by Iris Niebach, which if I’d seen it first I might have made it instead (I am sure I read about it on Fox’s blog when she posted about it, but I’ve slept a couple of times since then). Oh, well, this way meant I had to take a chance at figuring out just what it was I did wanted and if I could get there from where I was.

I had a lot of fun in the trying.

“Just keep taking chances and having fun.”
Garth Brooks
brainyquote.com 

Kamryn Edging

 I just love the material for this table runner.  I picked it up at JoAnn’s when they had a lot of material on sale for 40% off.  There was lady there that was looking at fall-themed material at the same time I was. We liked so many of the same materials that we went to the cutting table at the same time so all of it could be cut for both of us while it was out.  We had a nice conversation while we were checking out the material. Fellow crafters can be pretty nice people.
Kamryn Edging, tatted edging on table runner with fall material on wandasknottythoughts
 Kamrny Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
This edging was the last one I did before the craft show and it wasn’t supposed to go with this material.  But after finishing it and laying it with the other material it just wasn’t going to work; both my daughters agreed with me.  The two edgings and materials were swapped and all looked much better for it.Kamryn is a very easy edging, with only rings and chains.  Surprisingly it has no thrown rings, split rings or shuttle switching.  It went very fast, which is why it made it to the craft show. (It was the first thing sold, right at the start of the show). I think there are similar patterns out there but I was not following one when I made this, I just started and this is what came off the shuttles.

Kamryn Edging up close, tatted edging on table runner with fall material on wandasknottythoughts
Kamryn Edging in Lizbeth Fudge Med # 698 & Harvest Orange Med #694
© Wanda Salmans 2015
I’m very happy with how this came out.  Sewing it on went much faster than usual because I took Michelle’s advice to use invisible thread.  She had suggested to sew it on with the machine but mine wouldn’t work. Maybe the tatting was too thick for the setting on the machine??  What-ever the problem, I had to do it by hand, but the invisible thread mostly made it go much faster even doing it by hand.   Why had I not tried this before???
The last couple of weeks had a lot of things happening around here.  About November 18th western Kansas had a blizzard and ended up with 20 inches of snow (that’s a lot of blowing snow out there!); on the 19th we experienced a 4.7 magnitude earthquake that was centered in northern Oklahoma which I felt at our house north of Wichita (Kansas has felt 162 earthquakes in the last month); then abnormally high temperatures for several days, around 65ºF to 70ºF, then an ice storm over the Thanksgiving weekend (lots of power outages due to broken power lines and downed trees).  We are now experiencing pleasant temperatures and sunny skies, which I am thankful for.
I’m not sure what to expect next from the weather or other natural phenomenon, but I do know what to expect next from me: I will be working on the Round Robin doily I’m doing on Craftree and things for Christmas.
How about you?  What are you making?“There is no “buy” there is only DIY”

Eleonore Edging

I made several edgings this year going for a certain look.  This is one that isn’t quite what I was looking for but not bad and works with the material I attached it to.  I’m not sure you can see just how well the green in the edging goes with the green in the material.
 Eleonore Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015 wandasknottythoughts
Eleonore Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015

I used Lizbeth Leaf Green Medium #684 and Ecru #603 in size 10.

 It’s interesting that much of the fabric I found this year have this shade of green in them.  I could almost use this color in every table runner I’ve been working on. And I have found a lot of fabric this year, so much that I could make runners for several years and never buy any more material except for backings.  This fun fabric is one that I picked up at the store that is going out of business.
I was having a hard time coming up with a name for this edging.  It doesn’t necessarily look like anything, I didn’t make it for any particular person, and I don’t want to name it by the color, so what should I name it?  Did you know there are places that generate names?   I tried a site called “Behind the Names: Random Name Generator and it gave me ‘Eleonore’.  It works.
I’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for the craft show this coming weekend, sewing in ends, coming up with prices, and planning the booth layout.  I’m feeling pretty good about it right now.  We’ll see how I feel come Friday night. :-0
“A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”
Salman Rushdie

Table Runner with Queen’s Crown Edging

Do you remember way back in February I made the edging Queens Crown Edging?
Well, I finally got it attached to the material! Yay!

http://www.wandasknottythoughts.com/2015/02/queens-crown-edging/
Queen’s Crown Edging © Wanda Salmans

I like making edgings and seeing the tatting on the material, but I really don’t like sewing the tatting to the material.  This part of the process is a necessary evil to finishing a table runner.

The finished table runner is 11 1/2 inches wide and 46 inches long, including the tatted edging which is Lizbeth #693 Linen Medium size 10.  I think it turned out well.

I have several other edgings already tatted and ready to go on material.  My sister is very sweet and offered to sew the material for me as her sewing machine is always out.  I cut the material for several runners then she sewed them.  I will turn them right-side out, stitch up the hole left for that and sew the edgings on.  I feel it takes me forever to do the hand stitching but it is worth it.  I’ll be sharing more table runners in the next few weeks.

My sister and I are going to be in a local craft show next week.  We usually participate in this one every year because it is local, making it much easier for both of us to go.  Going to craft shows much farther away can get complicated with our jobs.  Sometimes we do well, other times not so well, but we both enjoy participating in the show because of the festive atmosphere, the customers and the other crafters contributing to an enjoyable day.  Last year I did well with table runners and I’m hoping to do so again this year.

Something funny about this edging: I made this one and two others and put them in a drawer when they were finished, planning on putting them on runners when the material was sewn.  In the course of tatting other things and life happening I forgot about them until I was looking for something else. I also changed my mind on what material all three edgings were going to go on. But they all look really good finished.Yay!
“Of course I talk to myself when I tat. Sometimes I need expert advice.”

Mandy in Autumn Spice

I don’t usually make the same pattern more than once at a time, preferring to go on to other things or change it up in some way. It’s true this time, too, mostly.  Yes, this is ‘Mandy’ again – without any changes except thread color! – and this post is right after one where I talk about ‘Mandy’ in orange and brown.  But I didn’t tat them one after the other, I just finished sewing them to the table runners one after the other. 
‘Mandy’ Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 10
About the only things I sew are table runners, but I love shopping for material. I have quite the stash to prove it, too.  I usually have at least a vague idea of what I would like to tat for each material when it’s purchased whether I ever get to it or not. When I do get to making the edgings I try to match the pattern to the material as well as the thread. Sometimes this takes a while and sometimes everything just falls into place.

‘Mandy’ Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 10

The edging for this runner kind of came as a surprise.  I had another thread and another pattern in mind for it, this one was actually for something else. But when I laid this edging close to the material I couldn’t believe how well the colors went together.  Plans changed right away. In a good way!
This table runner is the same size as the other one, 12 inches by just over 40 inches. I don’t know if you’re into roosters or not, but this runner looks pretty good!
“As with anything creative, change is inevitable.”
Enya
brainyquote.com

Mandy in orange and brown

A couple of months ago I made this ‘Mandy’ edging in orange and brown.  I finally have it stitched on the runner.
‘Mandy’ Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
 Lizbeth #694 Harvest Orange Medium and #692 Mocha Brown Dark size 10
The picture doesn’t show very well how good the thread goes with the material – lighting? angle? background? – but in person the two are a great match.

Here it is again showing a bit of the material that is the backing of the runner. It shows it off a bit better than the other background. 
The runner is 12 inches wide and a little over 40 inches long. I’m very pleased with how this turned out. 
I also finished adding ‘Finn’ to the runner I started last week. That took a lot longer to sew on than this did.  I like both patterns but I like this one much better when it comes to sewing it down because it went so much faster.  But if I had a choice between sewing by hand or doing any kind of housework the sewing would win hands down!
“I’d rather be stitchin’
than in the kitchen!”
Author Unknown
quotegarden.com