Hello sewing friends! I’m pretty excited tonight because this week I received a sweet little wall hanging back from Barb, the LAQ at my local quilt shop, Quilts on Broadway. I finished the binding lickety-split this evening (the piece is only 12” by 30”), and I have it hanging up already. I am so happy with how it turned out.
This quilt is based off of the “Crops” block in the book Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt (Bee in my Bonnet). If you read my posts on June 5 and June 19, you know I have been participating in the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along. Every week we make two, 6-inch blocks from Lori’s book. The “Crops” block from week seven was one of my favorites, and Lori’s book included instructions for making a runner.
I had two goals in mind for this runner, which would be a wall hanging for me: 1) to use only scraps from my stash, and 2) to use low volume fabric for the background. I’ve been going to my stash and scrap piles during the sew along, so I knew I could continue to meet that goal. But I have not ventured much with using prints for backgrounds, so I knew that would be a stretch for me. I had seen several beautiful projects on Instagram using this technique, so I decided to get out of my comfort zone and go for it. I’m so glad I did. It was fun to do something different, and I think the end result is a sweet little quilt with a modern vibe. I really love it.
From the moment I began working on this little quilt, I knew where I would hang it . . . in this awkward, skinny vertical space in the entry of our home. But I also knew it might look a bit lonely in that space. It really needed to be layered with something else to give it some weight. Lo and behold, after the top was pieced and dropped off at the quilt shop, I found an old window that had the perfect dimensions to frame this little quilt. Thank you to my shopping buddies (Brenda, Jacki, Mary & Jeanette) who helped me search for just the right window on our Ladies Out Pickin’ day.
By the way, after I typed the word lickety-split, I was curious to see if it was actually a proper word or a nonsensical phrase I had been using since childhood. The definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “at great speed.” We sure can bind at great speedwhen we want to hang up a small quilt, can’t we? 😉
Thanks for reading. I hope you will give low-volume backgrounds a try—you’ll be glad you did! Here’s hoping you get carried away quilting often!
~Taunja
Note: to hang this little quilt on my window, I just sewed a very small sleeve and inserted a 1/4\” dowel, cut to size, and hung that on two suction cup hooks. Very slick!
Note: to hang this little quilt on my window, I just sewed a very small sleeve and inserted a 1/4\” dowel, cut to size, and hung that on two suction cup hooks. Very slick!