Frosty placemats

Here's one of the projects that kept me away from the computer over the last month. These fabrics had been calling my name for a long time but I was a good girl and didn't bring them home until I had a plan for them.  When a customer at the LQS where I work gathered these up and paired them with my Geese Across the Table placemat pattern, I took one look at her stack and knew I had finally found my plan!

It is hard to tell from the picture, but the grey is actually silver metallic, and all the fabrics have silver metallic accents.  You can see the sparkle better in the closeup below.

Sparkling fabric is not usually my thing, but these spoke to me.  Maybe it's because the sparkle is paired with blues.  You know I love blues!

I stitched in the ditch on both the place mats and runner, because really, the gorgeous fabric is doing all the work here!  The binding is machine stitched.  There's a lot of binding in 6 place mats and a runner, and I just did not have the time or inclination to hand stitch that much of it!  

I have some Christmas place settings on my table right now, but come January, my table will be dressed in frosty blues!

I thought my receipt had information about the fabric I could share, but it doesn't.  I'll check next time I'm at the shop and report back.  I'm pretty sure most of the blues are from Timeless Treasures, and the white background is from the Quilter's Linen collection by Robert Kaufman.  And I know Quilting Connection in Ames IA has kits made up and they accept phone orders! (Just note that the kits have a different grey/silver fabric for the accent.)

After working on these I'm in the mood for frost on tree branches and sunlight sparkling on snow.  Right now we have the cold, but not the snow.  I'm sure it will come soon enough, and then I'll be wishing for spring!

Canuck Quilter patterns at Connecting Threads

My husband came back from the mailbox last weekend with a little spring in his step and a grin on his face.  He found the latest Connecting Threads catalog and remembered to flip through it to find my patterns.  It's a toss up whether he or my mom are my biggest cheerleader.

There it is on page 21:  Connecting Geese by Canuck Quilter Designs, exclusive to Connecting Threads, sewn up by their sample sewers in their new Elemental Nuances fabric line.  They are selling kits as well as pattern downloads.

You may also recognize the placemats and runner on page 23.

I really think the pattern works well with just about any fabric style or color palette.  These are certainly different from mine in bright blue and lime batiks, but no less effective in an all-grown up, elegant way.  I'm tempted to order some of that fabric for a new set for my table.

I colored both patterns in EQ using digital swatches of this fabric line, but this is the first time I have seen them actually sewn up.  Since the fabric was not yet available in April, when I had to test the pattern, I have a different version of the Connecting Geese quilt.  Well, I have a top.  I haven't gotten around to quilting it yet, but with the cool fall weather, this fall top is calling to me and just might become a finished quilt sooner than later.  Unless, of course, a squirrel pops in, which we all know is a very strong possibility...

I'll leave you with the digital image of Connecting Geese and my test version.  What colours and fabrics would you make this in?