Category Archives: table toppers

Table Topper Flimsies, 60 Degree Angels, and IIWII

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Last weekend was not that productive in the quilting area as I would have liked. However, I did manage to finish a lilac table topper for myself to the flimsy stage. This was a project that I started a year ago. I also finished one of these toppers for my Mom and my Aunt–only they got their table toppers over a year ago! http://silverthimblequilting.blogspot.com/2008/06/table-toppers.html

Hopefully, it won’t take me another year to get this one quilted for myself!


The colours don’t photograph as true as they are in real life. The purple in the lilacs is looking a little blue–you will have to take my word for it–those lilacs are really purple!

This next topper was a disappointment. My mom found this cute watermelon fabric while we were in Oregon last May. I found a pattern called, Wagon Wheels by Stitchin’ Friends of IA that I thought would be perfect for this fabric. http://www.newleafpatterns.com/Patterns/Pattern_Images/StitchinFr/stitchinfr.html

I can tell you with certainty that I will never be making this pattern again! I am fed up with 60 degree angles, templates, and trying to get things to match up where they are supposed to. Some patterns are better left on the designer’s studio floor and should never make it to the cute little plastic bag hanging on the hook in the quilt shop stage. Don’t get me wrong, some designers know how to design and publish great patterns. One designer in particular who you can trust is Terry Atkinson of Atkinson Designs. Terry tests her patterns before publication on “real quilters”. IMHO, this is a designer that not only knows what she is doing, but is interested in repeat sales of new designs and patterns to quilters who have previously purchased her products.

One of the FABs challenged us to include some things in our “bucket list” this year that we would like to try or conquer. I have not committed my bucket list to paper – partially because I may actually have to deliver on those items and partly because if I decide I don’t like something, I can just abandon it and deny that it ever was a bucket list item. However, that same FAB has known of my triangle phobia for some time and has encouraged me to try different piecing methods in order to conquer my fear of triangles. I am wondering if piecing all these 60 degree angles counts towards piecing triangles. Maybe I should quickly add this to my bucket list so I can just as quickly strike it off that list! LOL

I started the first triangle piece of this topper in the morning, got so frustrated with the piecing technique described in the pattern and quickly abandoned the project for the day. As I hate to waste anything, I headed back down to the studio in the evening and decided that IIWII (it is what it is) and I finished it. So, here it is with all its imperfections. I am sure once it is quilted I will be able to find a home for it. Lucky for me I have fabric leftover and I can make another topper in a “friendlier” pattern.

Come to think of it, I should add IIWII to my bucket list and then I can strike two things off the list!

Cat Table Toppers

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I finished off the binding on two table toppers tonight.

Both toppers are made from cat fabrics that my aunt fell in love with when we were fabric shopping in Fabric Depot last year.

This is the first topper – a spiderweb design.

Have a look at the cute kittens and puppies on the fabric that is on the back.

I was originally just making one topper but I had enough fabric leftover that I could make a second topper.

And more of those cute cats on the back.

International Quilting Weekend

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Saturday, March 21, 2009 was National Quilting Day in the US. I noticed another Canadian blogger who referred to Saturday as INTERNATIONAL Quilting Day and I feel a little like her and think this should be more than an event limited just to the US. Given all the good that quilters do worldwide for their communities, we should be recognizing quilting world wide and the day should be changed to International Quilting Day!

I told my mother that it was International Quilting Day and she asked me what I was going to do. I told her that I was going to quilt of course! And quilt I did. I joined http://catsnqlts2.blogspot.com/ in a Move It Forward Challenge. We challenged one another to pick a UFO and move it forward from pieces of fabric sitting in a box on the shelf to at least the flimsy stage.

Friday night I had put the finishing stitches in a quilt that Linda and I had worked together on previously – on Super Bowl Sunday in 2008. As I quilted Linda’s quilt I thought about the fun we had making our quilt tops together–Linda in the southern US and me in Canada, connected only through our computers and the Internet. What fun we had planning our quilts and working together through some of the challenges of the pattern. We ended up with a flimsy each. I quilted my Bargellobowl quilt last weekend and this weekend, I finished up Linda’s Bargellobowl quilt. Linda’s quilt is large–approx. 90 inches square. This quilt was so large that my daughter’s arm span was not large enough for her to act as the official quilt hanger. So for the picture, we put the quilt on the floor. As you can see, Joey is walking the border, doing his customary quilt inspection.

Once the pictures were taken, I packaged up the quilt and headed off to the post office. Linda’s quilt is now on its way back to her. It still seems surreal that the quilt that had only existed as pictures on the Internet up until now was actually in my hands, thousands of miles away from where it was pieced. Linda’s quilt is full of memories–there are fabrics in there from the FAB stashes, her Mom’s stash, and it now has my quilting stitches holding the sandwich together. So I started the Move It Forward Challenge by helping a fellow FAB move her flimsy one step closer to being a finished quilt.

The next project I tackled was taming the overflowing unruly box of string pieced rectangles that I have been working on over time. When I am looking for a mindless project to do where I don’t have to match anything or concentrate much, I work on string piecing scraps to used Color Catcher sheets. Once I have a stack, I trim them up to 4″ x 9″ .

These are the stacks of blocks that I trimmed up on Saturday. Each stack is at least 3″ high. Linda asked me what I had planned for these blocks. I was just going to sash and cornerstone them into a simple top. Linda asked if I had thought of making a Railroad Crossing quilt.

After searching the Internet for ideas and swapping pictures of quilts back and forth, I came across a quilt with pink and tan alternating squares that I fell in love with. It wasn’t long and Linda sent me this EQ drawing of a quilt similar to the one that I fell in love with. With this drawing it is easy for me to figure out how many squares of what fabric I need and just how many of the string pieced bits that I need. It is obvious to me now that I have enough string pieced bits to make about three of these quilts!
This is very typical of what happens when Linda and I get together and start discussing quilts and quilting. We start with one idea and the next thing you know the pattern ideas are flying back and forth over the Internet and we both have a few more quilts added to our Quilting To Do list! It is great to have someone to bounce your ideas off of.


The UFOs that I decided to move forward were my Easter table toppers. This first topper is for me. It was previously just a flimsy and Saturday I managed to get it quilted. Sunday I machine stitched the binding to the front of the quilt. That pink strip around the perimeter of the topper is the binding ready to be hand stitched to the back of the quilt.


This second topper is for my Mother. The fabrics are those that my mom bought while we were on our recent trip to Arizona. I managed to piece and quilt this topper on Saturday. This topper is also ready for the hand stitching of the binding to the back of the quilt.


This is a picture of the cute fabric that is on the back of both toppers.
The members of my local Monday night quilt group have decided that they would like to make some quilts together. We have picked Bonnie’s Scrappy Trips pattern. I have decided to make my quilt out of fabric in my stash. I have a huge collection of floral fat quarters that I am cutting 2 1/2″ strips from for this project and 4 1/2″ strips from for a future project – Terry Atkinson’s
Daisy Chain. While putting together this first block on Sunday night, I remarked to Linda that maybe I should make the center squares on my blocks out of green fabrics in order to tame some of the chaos caused by all the florals that I am using. I was asking Linda what she thought of my idea.

Before I knew it, Linda had drawn up this diagram in EQ to give me some idea of what my idea might look like.
So, what started as National Quilting Day ended up as International Quilting Weekend! It is great to celebrate time to quilt together with friends – no matter where they live!

Table Toppers

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While in Oregon, my mother spotted the perfect fabrics with lilacs on it. She bought enough for me to make three table toppers–one for my aunt, one for me, and one for herself.

I managed to finished the topper for my aunt in time for her to take it back with her to Saskatchewan. A week ago I finished my mother’s.

I have not yet finished the topper for myself. What is it that they say about a mechanic’s car–a mechanic never has time to fix his own car, always busy fixing everyone else’s. I think the same is true of quilters. I seem to find time to finish everyone else’s quilts, but don’t have time to finish my own! LOL

This past week, it has been very busy here–i finished quilting 7 customer quilts from Monday to today. I am now officially caught up–at least for a couple of days. I am anxious to work on some of my own projects in the next few days.

Quilter’s Block

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Last weekend I was experiencing Quilter’s Block.

Quilter’s block is a lot like writer’s block–a temporary loss of ability to begin or continue quilting, usually due to a lack of inspiration or creativity.

Last weekend I managed to complete two very small projects:

1. I put the binding on my tulip Spiral table center. I think it goes quite well with the quilt I currently have hanging in the dining room.

2. I made a very small table center for St. Patrick’s Day. This table center is made with the same Spiral pattern as the tulip table center above, just smaller–only one round. This is a picture of the table center at my Mother’s house with her shamrock plant, all ready for March 17th.


So this was the best that I could do last weekend–binding a table topper and making a small table center with the fast turn method (no binding).