Secret Garden Tablerunner

Okay, so I have been plodding away on this tablerunner and am delighted with it so far. The 3 flower appliques have been slow going, mostly because my machine foot pedal is shot and I have to keep pressing the start/stop button which also means that I have my Janome speed control at the slowest notch.  Having said all that I am very pleased and hoping to start free motion quilting it tomorrow.

One thing I will say is when you are using a blanket stitch it really is a great idea to slow your machine down to the slowest speed if you have that option on your machine.  By not having the foot pedal I had to concentrate on the stitching and be ready to hit the button, as a result the stitching is far more even and little to no blips!!!

I did a small zig zag stitch around the flower center using matching blue thread. Each flower took about an hour to applique, the fussy part was the stitching in the concave area down by the center of flower. I used the hand wheel to manipulate the needle so that it would fall in the right area and take bites where I wanted.

Stay tuned for some free motion quilting and a final reveal!

Happy sewing!
Anne Marie