52 Week UFO Challenge - Project #14 - Wool appliqué heart candle mat

MORE hearts!!

I've said it before... I love wool hearts!!

I started this appliqué piece almost two years ago to do a wool appliqué demo at our local quilt shop. The hearts had been blanket stitched, so I added some embroidery stitches and cut a backing from another piece of navy wool.

Cutting a backing from another piece of navy wool.

I decided to add some buttons to the appliqué piece and that was just what was needed.

Sewing on the buttons.

 The final step was to blanket stitch around the edge of background in order to secure the backing.

The candle mat has been blanket stitched around the edge.

 Project #14 is complete!

The finished candle mat.

52 Week UFO Challenge - Project #12 - Hexagon Table runner

LAST March I started sewing 1" hexagons together by hand just so I would have something to work on while I was on vacation in Florida. Last August I posted some Tips for Hand Sewing Hexies and now FINALLY I am finishing my hexagons into a table runner.

One of the reasons that it took so long to finish this project was that I really wasn't sure HOW to finish it. I didn't want to bind around all of those corners and I didn't want to cut off any other edges to make the sides straight. Finally I thought of a solution - I would appliqué the hexagons to a background fabric. After trying a few different ones, I decided on a Stonehenge light grey.

My finished hexagons previewed on a grey background.

The next step was to remove all of the hexagon templates from the back of the pieced runner. First I pressed the piece really well to make sure that the edges were nice a crisp.

The hexagon templates.

Popping out the hexagon templates.

The templates have all been removed.

The next step was to use my 505 Spray to spray the back of the entire piece and then to centre it onto the grey background.

The back of the hexagons sprayed with 505 Spray.

After the hexagons were stuck to the background I stitched around the outside of entire piece to secure it to the background.

Stitching the hexagons to the background.

 My next step was to layer the background with batting and a backing. I then used my walking foot to quilt straight lines down the entire quilt.

Close-up of the quilting lines.

Straight line quilting with my walking foot.

I wanted to add a little bit of the teal to the binding, so I decided to try out the Magic Binding tutorial that I found online. That little extra teal was just what I wanted!!

The magic binding!

Here it is! The finished table runner! I just love how it turned out and now I'm thinking of other ways to appliqué pieced hexagons to backgrounds!!! And wouldn't you know it...I have MORE hexagons left so I guess that means another UFO :)

The finished hand pieced hexagon table runner.