Watercolour Rainbow table runner/wall hanging

I made this little table runner/wall hanging from the leftover material from making this wedding quilt.  The batiks were too beautiful to ignore or separate so I played around with them and came up with this simple stacked design which studies their colour graduation.  I think it's like a muted rainbow, washed away by the rain. :)
The border is the same chatreuse I used to bind the wedding quilt too - it's a bit brighter than it looks here and I love the acidity against the pastels.  The backing was some pink batik I had in my stash.  You can see the simple quilting I used best on the back and the little hanging pockets I included on each corner so the recipient can hang it using some doweling if they want.
Overall, I was very happy with the result of this little piece and think it is apt that, like its big sister quilt, it has been gifted as a wedding present.

A new year

Which will hopefully bring more sewing and more projects to write about!  So many of my 2011 projects have been gifts so there has been a bit of a time delay in blogging about them.  Hopefully there will be more creations which aren't secrets this year so I can put them up sooner.  Anyhoo, here are some small scale projects I made as Christmas presents for the in laws this year.  Each one involves a part of a layer cake cut into 5" finished squares.  Nothing too technical but pretty sweet I think.  I bound them all in the same yellow and white dot material, which gave them an interesting harmony together.
Not the best photos as they were taken inside but here is the table runner/chair throw:

 It was backed in a dusty pink cotton, nice and simple and quilted in the ditch longways and with double lines shortways.
This is the small square quilt - good for a baby, a small tablecloth, for the park...

 It's from the same layercake as the first one but as you can see I have separated out the pinks, blues and greens from the yellows, reds and teals.  This one is backed with a bright teal polycotton for harder wear and washing.  It is quilted more heavily too with a not quite random double track pattern in both directions.  I'm really enjoying experimenting with straight line quilting.

Finally the set of six placemats (clashing beautifully with our doona cover).  Different layercake from which I chose the blues and yellows (there is only the brown slices left now as I used the pink ones in this quilt.  These are backed with an apple green and white spot material.  I quilted these on the diagonal so each little square is marked with a cross.

It's been a while.

I have been neglecting this blog recently.  Oops.  Maybe that would be a good new year's resolution - keep up to date and keep quilting!
So some photos and descriptions of recent creations:

This is a 60" square sofa throw for my mother.  She requested something with deep green in it and being a fan of Australiana I decided to largely use material from the Robert Kaufmann range "Under the Australian Sun".  I love the pink and turquoise line within it and think it really gives, what could have been a bit of a cliche, a real twist.  The pattern is adapted from one I found for jelly rolls. 

 The back is a sage broadcloth with a couple of accents added.

 The following three items are part of a Christmas order for my first proper word of mouth client!  She was fortunately very happy with the results. :)
First up is a table runner using a mixture of great materials sourced from the US (gee those guys know how to do Christmas!)  The tartan gives it a real Scottish Christmas feel and the little red birds are so cute.  The pattern is this one.

 The next item I made for her was a baby girl quilt.  It is quite a generous size, about 40" x 48" so it should last a while.  I started with the colourful daisy print and picked out colours from there. I love the baby animal print too - There is nothing too saccharin about this quilt, which I am very pleased about. :)  It is a square in square design, which always looks lovely and fresh and modern.

 Finally another table runner.  This time using real Americana Christmas materials, mostly (or maybe even entirely) from the "Jingle all the Way" series.  I adore this range because it is really understated in its Christmas motifs and yet when put together it shouts festive season.  It is a runner for a 6 seater table so ended up about 2m long (yes, I do sometimes use metric!)  The design is my own using traditional sawtooth and Ohio star blocks.  I had an image in my mind it came to fruition almost exactly, which was very exciting.  It is backed with the same gold check used in the sashing.