March UFO Project - Tick!

Last year at the end of August I went on a sewing weekend away and whipped up some pinwheels from a charm pack of  Marmalade by Bonnie & Camille which I won some time back from Kristy at Quietplay.

I didn't really have any particular plan for them but wanted to try the method of putting two charms together, sewing a 1/4" seam all around the edges and then slice the diagonally and stitch together to make pinwheels.  It was pretty much as easy as it sounds but that was as far as I got.

As part of the UFO along at Aunt Marti's blog I bagged these up at the beginning of the year and this month their lucky number (4!) came up. So what to do with them?  First things first I had a look through my fabric stash for any fabric which would co-ordinate with them. Not as easy as it might sound as they are not my usual colours, a little softer than I usually use.

I did however find a great black and cream fabric which seemed to be the best fit, along with a diagonal striped fabric.  After a bit of fiddling around I decided placemats and a table runner would be the way to go.

I had hoped to bind them in the black and cream but unfortunately I only had enough for the block sashings so chose a cream which matched the backing fabric as well, so they are reversible! 

Front (above) and back (below):

I had some fun with the quilting on them, trying a spiral in each pinwheel. I hadn't tried a spiral before and they turned out okay, a few wobbles here and there but on the whole I'm happy with them.

I used my usual all machine stitched binding method (see tutorial at Missouri Star Quilt Co here) but used a stitch I haven't used before for the top stitching. I had thought that this stitch seemed to face the wrong way around but in the end I quite liked it so I might use it again! I used a variegated thread in black, grey and white.

 Here's a close up of the topstitching on the back:

Not sure who these will go to yet (they are certainly not my colours) but I'll put them away and find the right recipient during the year.

So UFO No. 3 ticked off for 2014 - yay!

Thanks for visiting today,