Eleganza thread adds sheen to wool appliqued table runner

Yesterday on QUILTsocial we talked about 3 great ways to use strip piecing in a quilt. I really love how the strip pieced applique hearts looked on my wool banner and I can’t wait to sew together the die cut triangles that I made with my strip sets!!

On Tuesday, I pieced together my table runner using WonderFil’s Konfetti thread. Today we’re going to continue working on the strip pieced table runner and I’m going to show you how lovely it is using Eleganza thread to add wool applique to a table runner.

Adding the hearts

I wanted my table runner to have a more ‘Valentine’s Day’ feel to it, so I decided to add some appliqued hearts. I had two hand dyed wools that matched the batiks perfectly, so I used my Accuquilt cutter and heart die to cut three hearts from each of the wools. If you don’t have a die cutter, you can easily make your wool shapes using freezer paper like we did yesterday for the purpose of creating an embroidered outline.

I used adhesive spray on the back of the hearts to ‘stick’ them to the table runner and keep them in place for hand stitching. For more details on using adhesive spray for wool applique, check out my blog post on August 31 – Christine Baker – Fairfield Road Designs.

Stitching the hearts

I used the Eleganza threads to do a blanket stitch around each of the hearts. Here’s a video that I found on YouTube that shows how to do the blanket stitch.

Adding embellishment

After the outside of each of the hearts was stitched, I decided to add some more embellishment by stitching a heart shape to the center of each wool heart. Since one of my wools is fairly dark in color, the marking pen I usually use wouldn’t work, so I decided to cut a smaller heart with the freezer paper. I ironed it to each of the wool hearts and stitched a chain stitch around it. When the freezer paper was removed, the heart looked perfect!!

Here’s a chain stitch tutorial that I found on YouTube. I just started using the chain stitch for my projects and I really like it! Especially with the variegated Sue Spargo Eleganza threads – wait until you see that tomorrow!!

Here’s the finished table runner top. I’ll get it quilted on my Gammill and next month I’ll show you the finished project!!

We’ve got one more day to play with the Eleganza threads, and tomorrow I’m going to show you how to use the threads to make a Valentine cushion with wool applique and hand embroidery. We’ll be adding to the embroidery stitches that we have learned today and I think you’re going to love it. I hope today’s info on using Eleganza thread to add wool applique to a table runner has been helpful for you – see you tomorrow!!