Blue Hexagon Round Table Runner

After finishing the Christmas table cloth for my dear friend, Marijke, during my stay in France in 2010, I would like to make a round table runner for myself using the same technique; English Paper Piecing. It was just the right project, for hand sewing, to start at the time when I joined the local ladies at the 'Fat Quarter' sewing group. After several stops and starts and 2 years on with my acquisition of the Gammill Statler Stitcher along the way, I have finished this blue hexagon table runner for the round table that I have got at home. I used 1 1/2 inch size hexagon, pieced the hexagons and appliqued the finished piece on the background fabric by hand. It was a good chance for me to have more practice on custom quilting, so I custom quilted it on my wonderful Gammill Statler Stitcher. The swirl pattern named 'cinnamonroll L107' was by Laurie Thomas. I also experimented with using Creative Studio to divide the pattern (for the little daisy in the centre), and to create a scallop edge, a few tips that I learnt from Karin while visiting her in Stange, Norway. It worked out really well. Thanks, Karin. :-) Although I was managing fine, I also learnt that shallower curves would be easier when it comes to doing the binding....something to keep in mind for the next scallop edge.!! Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable task, overall, during a restful weekend.

Visiting 'Statler sisters'

During my last trip overseas, I was fortunate to have opportunity to visit a couple of the 'Statler sisters'.... Straight after arriving in Oslo, Norway, my family and I went to visit Karin in Stange. I thought the name of her shop 'Sy-Sammen', which means 'Sew Together', was very appropriate. It's an amazing shop, with everything I could want for patchwork and quilting. While Karin and I had a lovely afternoon together, chatting about different techniques for long arm quilting on the Gammill Statler Stitcher, my DH and Sunshine were having a ball in the Norsk Motorhistorisk Museum owned by Karin's husband, Ole. The museum also has a long arm 'sowing' machine.! Karin cooked very yummy roasted moose and baked mixed berries for dinner. We had fun trying to translate the Norwegian names of what we were eating into English. Before we knew it, it was time to catch the train back to Oslo. My Sunshine still talks about Ole's tractor museum and would like to go back to visit him again.... We all fell in love with Oslo, so we would like to make another trip there some day.
 

While I was in Sweden, I spent a day with Maria, a professional long arm quilter. Maria was the first person to own a Gammill Statler Stitcher in the country. Wow.! She was such a bubbly, cheerful and happy person to be around. We had so much to talk and share about our Statlers and also managed to finish an E2E quilting of a baby quilt, with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea in between.! Maria made a very nice apple crumble for our afternoon tea. I certainly felt very special. :-)

 Maria and I in her Quilting Studio