Today we are thrilled to have Aurifil Artisan Faith Essenburg here at the Auribuzz blog sharing a beautiful hand quilting project! Faith’s project features our Lana Wool thread which is a 12wt, making it perfect for hand work. Take it away Faith!
What to do with all those scraps? Always a question on our fabric collector (hoarder?) minds. Last summer I made two large Liberty half square triangle quilts for friends of mine, each block left a good eight inch long scrap with varying widths, of course I couldn’t throw these away so I saved them for a future project. I eventually decided on a table runner in rainbow order with a very scrappy feel to it.
I wanted matching floss for hand stitching so I thought I would give this wool variegated a try. Not only are these little spools beautiful to look at but they are dreamy to work with!
This project is so simple to make, just arrange your strips of fabric in color order or however you like and sew together. Most of my scraps are 1.5 – 2 inches wide but they vary and I think that’s part of the scrappy charm. After they are all sewn together, iron pressing seams to one side (or open, but I don’t have patience for that!), then trim to make an even rectangle. I have added a linen border of 3 inches on all sides to frame it out and add width since my strips were only about 7 inches long to start with.
I used a white 28 weight thread (2021) for the hand stitching on each strip of fabric and added matching colors along all sides of the border.
I love how these colors go from deep and bold to a pale-soft and then pure white till the colors come back in again. Makes for interesting hand sewing and a very unique project! After all my quilting was done, I added a simple white binding to keep the focus on the colors.
I think this rainbow bit at the end might just be my favorite part. The best thing about this kind of scrap project is that there are no rules, patterns or even guidelines! Anything goes and the imperfect, leftover scraps and wonky stitching are celebrated!
The feel of silky smooth Liberty Lawn, natural linen and soft wool thread is a perfect combination. I find myself running my fingers over those tiny stitches while I’m sitting at the table sipping my tea.
So, save those scraps for a rainy day, pair them with a set of beautiful wool variegated thread and before you know it you have yourself the perfect weekend hand sewing project to relax with.
Happy sewing!
ABOUT FAITH
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Faith Essenburg is a maker, stitcher, quilter and sometimes blogger. She has three boys and just moved to a small town where she hopes to spend her days sewing, cooking and gardening. Faith has been sewing for five years now, trying everything from EPP, embroidery, free motion quilting and even bra making.
Faith this is exquisite! What a fantastic blend of wool variegated threads and Liberty. Ok, now I MUST give this a try:) thanks for your inspirational blog:)
Whoa ! This is absolutely beautiful Faith. I love the somewhat primitive look of the Lana wool. You’re stitching tops this off wonderfully. Thanks for sharing the inspiration.
This is gorgeous and very inspirational. I think this is my plan for my Liberty scraps. x
Beautiful! I love your use of the varigated lana thread for your quilting: now I want some!! 😉 Hugs, H
So pretty! I love variegated thread and will now be on the look out for some Tana Wool at my local quilt shop.
So I’ve been on the web and have only found one store that carries a limited supply of this thread. Could you send me the names of a few stores that carry it so I could order some? Thanks!! Hugs, H