Penguins In The Sewing Room (And On The Coffee Table)

After I'd added the two Christmas cushions to my Q4 FAL list, I decided a table runner made from the leftovers would also be nice so added that too, as item nine.  I said that it would use strips and squares as that's what I thought I'd have left, but what I actually had left was this:

I couldn't decide how best to use them and Sarah brilliantly said 'Well I want to see a long thin solids only blue sky top, darker blue sea on the bottom right, white on the bottom left as ice floor and snow hills. With that penguin far left.' I loved that idea and laid out the fabric on my coffee table straight away:

All the blue is leftover from other projects and the whites are the small pieces left from the penguin cushion, along with about ten charm squares of a Bella solid (snow?), which isn't the same bright white and so provides a bit of depth.  I've decided to share all my progress photos with you so you can see how I made it.  And also because I like to see other people's progress photos rather than always just a photo of the finished item.  Feel free to whizz past them to the photo of the finish and then Archie!  Some of them aren't the greatest photos as the light levels have been awful, even when it's (supposedly) day time.  And those taken around dusk and then once darkness has fallen aren't marvellous, but they're all I have!   I used my Oakshott runner as a size template and laid all the pieces over that to make sure it was large enough, just in case you're wondering what it's doing in lots of the photos!

I started with the easy bit: the sky!

And then had a think about how I would manage the transition between sea and sky:

before starting on the left-hand snowy bit:

The safety pin is to help me keep track of the vertical as I kept getting confused!

I then jumped over to the right-hand side, where I had to start taking photos of my new few steps to avoid unnecessary partial seams or unpicking:

And then wondered why I hadn't made all the sections and then appliqued them together instead of stubbornly sticking to piecing!

Two brave penguins jumped in the icy water, but had to wait overnight before they got their bottoms wet!

They took the plunge!

And I pieced the rest of the water, before pondering how best to join the sections:

I joined the left-hand side to the middle:

but didn't like that big expanse of blue, even if it was Oakshott, so I unpicked and sliced into it to insert some different fabric:

I could then no longer put off working out how to join the middle to the right-hand side, so after a couple attempts (two where I machine tacked the seam and the final one where I gave it a really good press, pinned it in place and just went for it), I had the bottom section pieced, albeit with a seam which, perhaps, no sensible person would tackle as one seam:

And here's how it looked pieced but untrimmed or quilted:

I added lots (and lots!) of quilting, mainly curved lines going across/through/down sections, to try and add texture and movement.  There was the usual point where it looked like a dog's dinner, but it was too late to unpick so I had to just keep going and trust that it would look better with more added:

As you can see, I had lots of ends to darn in, so I spent a Saturday night in front of the telly doing just that:

And was very pleased when I finished before bedtime!

I didn't trim it before quilting as I wasn't sure how much it would shrink or where exactly I wanted the edges to be until I saw what it was like quilted, so removing those tatty edges made it look quite different!  I had a bit of a dither over binding:

before solving it with mainly the blue Oakshott (which was my original plan) and a flash of red to bring out the hats and scarves of the penguins.

And here ('Finally!' I hear you cry!) is how it looks now it's finished, and freshly washed and dried:

Have you spotted the camouflaged polar bear?

Here's the back, which was a piece of plain white something I found in a drawer (a polycotton, perhaps, judging by how it dragged on the machine bed), so you can see all the quilting, and the texture it has added:

No wonder it took almost two bobbins of thread!

I took a photo of the front with the threads I used for quilting, just to give you an idea of the colour/shade changes:

And, just in case you haven't spotted him, here's the camouflaged polar bear (you can also see the subtle difference between the two white fabrics):

As this is a finish from my Q4 FAL list (item nine), I'll be linking up when the time comes!

I've also managed to (finally) finish hand quilting one background triangle on my Christmas Cherry quilt:

and am hoping to get this crocheted wreath finished before Christmas:

I need to fasten off that end and block it, and make the bow for the centre top. I may just manage, although I do have an awful lot of Christmas jobs to do as I haven't started writing cards or wrapping presents and my tree and all the decorations are still in the loft...

I'll leave you with a photo of Archie looking outraged because, so far, he isn't in my Instagram 'best nine' of 2016.  If you're on Instagram and you haven't liked his post, please do so or he's going to chunter about it well into next year!

Thanks for popping in!  (And well done for making it to the end!)