My lovely Round Table Runner, by chance

Earlier this year, I visited a local patchwork shop, just to buy some cottons. At a glance, the decision was made, and before I realised, I was, sort of, a proud owner of this bright and colourful fabric panel with six different fun designs of flowers and a few leaves printed on it. But, I didn't actually know what I wanted to do with the fabric panel.!! After I got home, I put it on the floor. I looked at it, walked around it, and was wondering how I was going to be able to sew all the perfect 6 circles. One morning, I got out the biggest ceramic bowl we have got in the kitchen. At a moment's thought, I used it to draw a hexagon shape template for cutting out the six flowers. Then, it took quite a while to work out how I would go about sewing these big hexagons and finishing them off. I ended up using my wonderful Gammill Statler Stitcher to quilt the hexagons and did the rest of the sewing by hand. By adding one more hexagon in the middle, I was able to sew all the seven hexagons together to form a round table runner. It looks lovely on the round table and has brightened up our guest room at home.

Wiggly Wheels

I was intrigued about how to make 'wiggly wheels' and, so have decided to have a go while having a bit of idle time during my stay in France this year (May-July 2011). My friend, Celine (she is Belgian who lives in France), took me to a 'tissue' (fabric) shop and I bought a few pieces of fabrics to get started. Without access to a sewing machine, I did all the piecing with hand sewing. I could only sew during the day becuase the lighting wasn't good at night time. I managed to finish ONE block.!! When I got home, it took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to do with the ONE block. One of the cushions in my home office needed a new cover and so, it was the purpose for making use of the block.

My 'French' English Paper Piecing

During November and December 2010, I was spending most of my time in Poitiers, France. I couldn't bring my sewing machine with me on the trip, so took some English Paper Piecing templates that I bought from 'Patchwork With Busyfingers' after watching the DVD 'Learn English Paper Piecing with Sue Daley' that came with Quilters Companion #44. I had never made anything using the technique before, so it was a good learning process to eventually work out how it's done. Being a practical kind of person, I have decided to make a Christmas table cloth for my dear friend Marijke who lives in Maastricht, The Netherlands. I bought all the materials from the craft shop in Poitiers. All the French ladies at the shop were nice and helpful. We couldn't verbally communicate much because of the language barrier but we had a lot of fun and understood each other well. I got what I was looking for without any problem. I finished the handwork and posted it to my friend before leaving Poitiers. Voilà, Marijke is now the proud owner of my very first 'French' English  Paper Piecing table cloth. I didn't think I would enjoy hand sewing this much but I have to admit that I really like working with the fabrics using English Paper Piecing technique.