Tablecloths always remind me of my maternal grandmother. She often had beautifully starched printed 40s and 50s tablecloths on her kitchen table. To me her tiny immaculate kitchen was a place of peace and well-being, a place of good food and order, and tablecloths trigger those associations for me.
Now I have my own collection of 40's and 50s tablecloths, and I've decided to make several of my own. Quilted table cloths are art for your kitchen. I don't know about you, but I don't have much wall space in my kitchen, but I have a big green table that is the perfect place for a rotating series of quilted kitchen art.
Bird Quilt (39X39) is made with embroidered pieces from Debra Spincic's Etsy store of beautiful machine embroideries. She has a wide and varied selection of pieces: borders, motifs, word tapes, and other beautifully executed and high quality items. There's a link button to Debra's shop in my sidebar.
These bird blocks remind me of those old state bird transfer embroideries. I have a set of those transfers, but buying these blocks from Debra made the quilt much easier to finish. Embroidered motifs make excellent blocks to alternate with pieced blocks.
I added machine embroidery to the bird blocks with my Janome, but Debra can add borders to these blocks. The word tapes, embroidered on twill tape, are going to be a feature in several quilts that I'm designing right now.Because this quilt is designed for a table, it has no batting, and is sewn together like a pillowcase and turned--it has no binding.
A cheerfully embellished kitchen table can make your day.
10 comments:
Love it, Barbara! I first saw something like this at my aunt's; she made a whole tablecloth with matching napkins. It's functional and beautiful! I LOVE your colors.
What a bright and cheery addition to your kitchen. It seems the right direction to me, given the comeback aprons have had. The embroidery of Debra's is beautiful and I love the patchwork idea. Hugs, Finn
very nice tablecloth Barbara,
I also had a grandmother that had a tablecloth on the table all the time though I hadn't thought about that much until you reflected upon it. Her table always had the salt, pepper and butter on the table at mealtime in the center of the cloth. She often brought flowers in from her garden to decorate the table. Her kitchen window faced the south and you could see the mountains in the distance from her window.
I hope you are enjoying your holiday and getting some time to quilt, read and be with family and friends. That is my idea of a wonderful way to recharge my batteries- perhaps it is yours too.
Warmest regards,
Anna
I use a tablecloth nearly all the time, but my table is big enough that I've never considered making a quilt for it. (I tend to work smaller than that!) I did make a cloth to fit a card table once though. Did you quilt yours at all? I may have to check out the other bird embroideries Debra has; I really like the way you've used them.
This is a beautiful use of the embroideries. I bet you will create memories like yours of your grandmother.
Your tablecloth turned out super! It's fun to see these birds turn up in all different ways-they are very adaptable and love to fly around and roost whereever they can!
Thanks for mentioning my etsy store too!
I love this idea Barbara and this one is lovely. check the link for Debra's store...it didn't work when I tried it. Xo Susan
What a great idea!
Lovely! I don't have any wall space in my kitchen either. Nada. I like the way you turned it like a pillowcase.
A most delightful project, for sure.
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