Quit #9 2015 - Indy 500 Table Runner

On this cool, cloudy Sunday afternoon, I can't quite get myself motivated to do much more than keep the couch company, so I thought I'd write about Quilt #9 that came on and off my Avante this year.  Usually by this time of year, I'd be on quilt 20 or 22, but it has been a slow quilting year for me (balanced by a really good cross-stitching year, so I am not too upset by it!).  Over Thanksgiving, I had 5 days off in a row and I was determined to make some good quilting progress (I posted here about other progress I made that weekend). 

I wanted to make some quick progress, so I pulled the table runner off my design wall. This started as a row by row shop hop project. I initially planned to put all my rows together into a top, but then one of my bee-mates came and showed us how she'd turned a couple of hers into table runners. I thought that was a great idea for this row, since we celebrate race car driving in Indianapolis in May. I was lucky to have a checkered backing that matches the borders, so it keeps the theme going! 

I decided to do a custom quilting job on this quilt, but it is a little hard to see because I matched the thread to the backing. I did double loops in the outer border that look a little like car wheels, stitch in the ditch around the black border, and a loopy stipple in the grey with circles that look slightly like exhaust coming from the back of each car. 

The thread on this was interesting - I used Aurifil (top and bobbin) for the two borders, and it quilted beautifully, which has been my experience every time I use it on my longarm.  I used Isacord grey in the center of the quilt, and I was really pleased with it as well.  When I first got my machine, I bought about 6 or 8 spools of Isacord during a sale at a local quilt shop, and then someone who was far more experienced with a longarm told me that I couldn't use Isacord with my longarm because it would shred. I was really sad (and kinda mad that I'd just dropped a chunk of change on it!) and I didn't try it for a long time.  When I finally did, I had great luck with it and that has been the case ever since. I am really glad that I didn't throw it out or give it away! It is amazing how differently threads behave on one machine vs. another (and I am glad it behaves well on my machine). 

It was a quick on-and-off project and I look forward to using it next Spring! And, it is another kit completed in my year of the kits!