Kaffe Kite Block Table Runner

Hi all -

In this post, I thought I'd share the Kaffe Kite Table Runner that I made. Here is the table runner before quilting:

You can get the pattern here, if interested. I don't think that's where I got the pattern, but that's the only place I can find it now. I pieced this last summer before going to the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival, but didn't get it quilted until this fall.

I felt like this table runner needed some more color in the solid areas, so I decided to add some big stitch hand quilting. I came up with a design that I liked in the stars, so I started there.

Here is a close-up of one of the finished designs:

When I had the hand stitching done in the stars, I took a picture of the table runner on my iPad, pulled it into a drawing app and started playing with quilting ideas. Here are the designs that I decided to go with:

The drawn quilting lines are far from perfect, but they gave me a good idea of what I might like.

I was worried about the machine quilting in the middle because I could tell that the top fabric was shifting a bit while I was doing the hand quilting. I was going to have to try to work that excess fabric in as I did the machine quilting. Do you see the tuck at the left side of the center circle?

And you can see some excess fabric around the edges of the back-and-forth quilting:

But to me, that's not something that bothers me enough to take it out, especially for a table runner that will have bowls of food sitting on it.

For the outside areas, I decided to do the dense machine quilting before adding the hand stitching to see if the fabric would lay better. I marked the hand stitching lines with water-soluable pen, then quilted it as if the hand stitching was already there.

When the machine quilting was finished, I added the hand stitching.

That worked a lot better for me!

Here I have the hand stitching in the center area completed:

When I finished the hand stitching, I just added a double-fold binding, as usual.

And here are close-up pictures of the different sections so you can see them better:

Even with the problems in the center, I really love how this turned it! It'll be a Christmas present for my sister, Linda, this year.

And for a little Christmas cheer, here is a picture of Lance at our company Christmas party today:

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and, if I don't get anything else done before then, a spectacular New Year!!

Nancy