Quilted Living Book Blog Tour

Welcome to the first day of Geri Robinson’s Quilted Living Book Tour…I’m Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings…I was delighted to be asked to stitch a project in Gerri’s newest book and be a part of this book tour.  What an awesome job I have… right?  This was the first thing on my list to stitch after arriving home from 2 weeks in Houston for Quilt Market & Festival.  I looked forward to “just stitching” …pick my fabrics and just make the runner… As a designer…I have to aways be thinking about writing everything down, figuring out every measurement, how many pieces of what and so on…so none of that here…just stitch the runner.  After studying my project  Liberty Table Runner….I decided to tweak it a little different from the pattern.  I was supposed to make it and put my twist on it.  I love long skinny runners… so I made the decision to only make 1 row of stars for my big farm table at the Lakehouse.  My color theme at the there is cream, grey and yellow…which just happens to be included in my newest fabric line, Lakeside Gatherings, due out this coming December and I happened to have some leftovers from all the quilts that we just made so this part was  super easy…no real decisions again…I added a few extra stars for a total of 15 instead of 13.   I then found some  leftover backing from Winneconne Waves quilt that will work, without having to piece a back, or use a bunch of yardage for a little  long runner.

See the Pam Buda BOM the Crows are working on??? I thought I’d leave that in for a little eye candy…

It is the weekend before this post so I’d better quilt it and get a binding on it right away…just in case something happens…I’ll be ready for this post instead of saving it all til Monday…So on the long arm it goes…

I picked a small edge to edge pattern (Paisley Max) and got it done…I used a cream thread and the  runner was done in one pass…That is not the thread I used…just a prop so you can see the size of the pattern…

I just love how this runner worked out…but the best part was piecing the stars! Look at them close…they share the same parts…square in a square units instead of flying geese, traditional star blocks.  It was  fun to piece these this way and it went together in a snap…If you have a shorter table…make less stars…this pattern is easily adaptable to any size, length or width.  I also changed the longer strip order…nothing major but a slight change… Here are two of the runners in the book…great also in Americana colors…I enjoyed stitching this runner I am going to make one for the summer holiday in drab red, tan and blue or maybe the quilt…yes…it was that fun!

I sat and went through all the other projects in the book…Nice directions..very clear and concise.  I tend to be more traditional and use more of a warm color palette in most of my projects.  The book’s projects are made from Gerri’s newest fabric line called Summer Cottage from Red Rooster Fabrics which is very fresh, clean and summery…but I can see that these patterns could handle many fabric choices that work with traditional blocks.

My Lakeside runner turned out to be 14″x 64″  Linda(thequiltedpineapple.com) and I shared projects  and she asked if I am going to have kits???.  Well I guess the answer is… yes we could!….If you would like to pre-order  (december) a kit using the same fabrics as ours the price will be $30.  See our website here for the kit.  You can get the book from Planted Seed Designs, Fat Quarter Quilt shop and we will also stock it at Primitive Gatherings It listed with the runner in the drop down box.

If you wish to win this book leave me a comment! We will pick a winner at the end of the tour.  I want to CONGRATULATE Gerri on her newest book and fabric line…I know how much hard work this all takes.  Well done!

If  you have not already been there…hop on over to Linda’s Blog to see what she has worked her quilting magic on! I have not seen it quilted yet, but It will be awesome!  thequiltedpineapple.com

Here is the rest of this Book Blog Tour Schedule:

November 11th
Fat Quarter Shop kicks off tour!

November 11th
Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings
Linda Hrcka of The Quilted Pineapple

November 12th
Gail Pan Designs
Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting

November 13th
Kathy Brown of The Teacher’s Pet
Thearica Burroughs of Pigtales & Quilts

November 14th
Helen Stubbings of Hugs N Kisses
Gerri Robinson of Planted Seed Designs ends the tour!

Good Luck and keep those needles moving!

Lisa