TATS Christmas Swap

 

My lovely Threads Across The Sea (TATS) friends and I have been secretly sewing for each other again.  We decided that we would each make a table runner or centrepiece for one secretly assigned partner as a Christmas gift.  Setting yourself up in a little stitch swap with your sewing besties is absolutely the way to go if you want to ensure that you get a great Christmas present!!

We set little inspiration mosaics for each other on IG and specified any preferences or limitations on colours and size and then let our partners go for it.

I was sewing for Di who chose to fill her inspiration mosaic with lots of curvy drunkard's path designs and Swedish folk art shapes and florals.  She also had a preference for a runner measuring 12" x 58" max.  It took me a while to fix on a design I could make almost fit those dimensions - it is surprisingly hard to keep a table runner to 12" wide, which is why this one is approx 13.5" instead.  I hope Di can forgive the extra borders to preserve the flower points in the central unit.

The centre is a quartet of 'pac-man' flowers with cheeky little yellow birds in their centres.

Coming out from that central flower quartet is a drunkard's path tulip, one on the right and one on the left.  Do you like the low volume background prints I chose to give it all a subtle base for those bold Tilda florals? 

Then, from the tulip centres three little hearts in decreasing scale flow out to fill the rest of the runner.  

The binding print, also used in the centre flower drunkard's path units is from a Makower line called Tea Party.  I thought it worked really nicely with the Tildas that I have.

I did a little outline quilting by hand in mid-grey aurifil but it wasn't really enough to hold everything so I used a cotton quilting thread by Gutermann to quilt a chevron design into the background. I've never hand quilted a background I like that before but I think it works well here and the less than perfectly straight lines perhaps add to the folksy feel of the runner.

This runner would be perfectly at home on my table (though is the full length of my table) and I must admit that I do like it enough to keep it, but I did post it to Di with fingers crossed that I met her brief and her expectations.  There's always a worry that something isn't quite right with swaps I find.

And, what did I receive?

Only this amazing table runner courtesy of all the magic and skills that Trudi (IG @trudi_wood) knows how to perform! 

I'm not sure there are enough superlatives to describe this stunning piece.  The colours, the echoing Carpenter's Star design, just could not be more perfect for my dining table.  I only wish I could get a better photo to do it justice.  Of course, Trudi's amazing talent for long-arm quilting (well, any kind of quilting actually) is very much to my benefit in this swap.  Sorry, Di and Judith!  

The four of us had our Christmas Zoom call during the week to open our secret Santa swaps together.  It was such lovely time to share the inspirations and ideas and process of the four beautiful table toppers that we made for each other.  2020 hasn't had much going for it in my experience, but this little community and connection with my TATS sewing besties has been one of the lifelines I found this year.  I do hope that 2021 is better all round but also that we are able to continue to share our friendship and stitching together by whatever means Covid restrictions will allow.

Homemade Happiness

I stitched some rather late gifts for our Threads Across The Sea visit that never was (thank you Coronavirus).  The other lovelies have long since spoiled me with their gifts which we would have swapped in person had we been able to.  I just didn't get my act together quickly enough in my making and when I did, I created another delay by not being sure I liked what I intended to make.  

Cue a little alternative inspiration from the Fat Quarter Shop Floss Tube channel and a root around my long forgotten cross stitch supplies and voila I had plans for these sweet hoops.  Although I've been tinkering with a little blackwork since Lockdown, it has been many years since I attempted any cross stitch.  I used to stitch a lot and it was nice to have a little play again.

There's one for Judith

one for Trudi

and one for Di too.

You can find the Fat Quarter Shop cross stitch pattern here. My hoop is just 5" since I stitched on 18 count aida instead of the 14 count suggested by the pattern, and I finished it with a little lace glued around the outer edge and turned over the lace picots toward the front of the hoop.

I'm really hoping my Threads Across The Sea buddies like them since they're a little diversion from a quilty gift.