The autumn table runner is finished!

I'm so excited about my just completed autumn table runner!  The appliqued swirly leaves and paper pieced flying geese blocks came out so very well and it came together very quickly.  My daughter likes it, too, and she seems to have already figured out where she wants it displayed it. In her house, of course!

I was having problems getting the layout to come alive. As you can see in these early attempts, something wasn't working. I didn't like all of the leaves, and the arrangements just didn't come together right.

During our weekly coffee get-together, I consulted my good friend, Midge. She's excellent at bringing a fresh perspective to all kinds of topics. She studied my layouts for a bit, pointed out what she did like about them, and then said, "Acorns. It needs acorns." And she was so right!

A few swapped leaves, a few acorns, and I had a layout that was coming together nicely.

Next came the quilting choices. My goal was to make everything pop and give the whole piece a sense of motion. The leaves really had to swirl in the wind. First I added depth by quilting around every piece of applique and in the ditch on every seam with invisible thread. Whew! Free motion quilting in the ditch made it all go a bit faster than it might have with standard stitching, but I don't know that I'd choose to do every stinking seam on a large quilt with hundreds of flying geese! 

Finally I added veins to the leaves with matching thread. Just a few little lines of sewing and the leaves suddenly looked almost real!

For background quilting I used cream colored thread in a very amateur variation of McTavishing. I have so far to go with getting the free motion quilting the way I'd like, but a few months ago this would not have been an option for me. Baby steps. Need to keep reminding myself. 

I'm going to take a couple of days, now, to address some neglected housekeeping and laundry. 

Then it will be on to the next project. It will definitely be the next block in the "Home" quilt along! It's slow, but I'm gradually catching up with the lost month of June.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!!