St. Louis Leftovers

During a short house-sitting gig in Victoria last month, I wanted to have a quickie project for the evenings.  I grabbed my gorgeous fat 1/8th stack of Shelburne Falls purchased from Westwood Acres, some coordinating Kona solids, a Sketch and Pearl Bracelet or two. I also threw in a couple of Chicopee prints since they go perfectly with Shelburne Falls.  Pre-cutting 4" strips before we left home meant I could just set up Lise-Lotte's sweet Featherweight and piece to my heart's content as soon as we arrived!

The plan was a St. Louis 16-Patch using Steffani's great tutorial.  The 16-patch blocks are huge, so the quilt top goes together very quickly. Depending on your choice of big print, small print or solid, the blocks can look quite different. It was a perfect holiday project that didn't require much thought.

Because I had long F8's instead of Fat Quarter's that the tute calls for (my strips were about 21" long), there were leftover pieced sections after cross-cutting the initial strip sets. They were so pretty I couldn't chuck them, so this table runner was born (thanks to Leanne's encouragement on IG). Like so many modern things I make, this runner doesn't really go with my house - at least until we update the living/dining room, so I think I will gift it to a friend turning 50. Her home is much more modern and I know she likes these colours.

The quilting is simple organic lines, all in Aurifil of various weights. I just chose the colours that coordinated. I'm not fussed about thread weights for quilting, but usually aim for the 28 or 30 wt.  The binding is Kona Grass Green and the backing is 3 different shades of Kona aquas from a FQ stack I have.

Front: 28 wt #5006, Back L-R: 28 wt variegated #4653 2ED, 40wt #2730, 28wt #5003 and 50 wt #4668. The two grey spools are from the V & Co. Simply Color collection and the orange spool is from the Tula Pink box set, both generously sent to me by Aurifil for the Patchwork Please Zakka 2.0-along.

As soon as the 16-patch quilt is actually quilted, I'll share that too. If you've got a bunch of fat quarters to use up, I highly recommend this fun patchwork quilt. You can go crazy with colour, or keep it subdued with a constant solid colour paired with large prints. It would be a great charity quilt pattern for guild sew-ins, or a fun block to swap at retreats.