Thursday, December 1, 2011

My table's dressed up for the holidays!

In October, I took a class with Nancy Bills that was put on by my guild.  Taking classes with a guild is a great way to meet new people and learn something along the way!  Nancy was teaching a pineapple block made the old fashioned way.  That means no paper piecing!  Here's one of the class samples.




Creating those pineapple blocks accurately was challenging for me!  But they sure looked nice when done.  I particularly liked a lot of blocks put together.   In the quilt below, the block starts at the small four patch and works in rings out.  Triangles go in the corner of the block.  It makes for a striking quilt when you put the blocks together and you can make some interesting secondary designs by fiddling with that triangle in the corner.  Here's another of Nancy's quilts that a lot larger.




I love how she put the navy blue as her final boarder around the outside, kind of like a scalloped edge.  I wanted to do that too.  But I didn't want a wall hanging, I wanted to make a table runner.   





I had to put  an extra round around to get the blocks facing the way I wanted.  I never could figure out how to get that blue border to make the scallopy edge.  It looks so simple in her quilt, but I really drew a blank on it.  So I ended up putting three blocks together and quilting a pantograph over the whole thing.  And I really love it!  Thanks Nancy for a great class!