10,000 pineapple placemats and coasters

Hello there

The title of this post is slightly misleading but hey, it got you thinking " what's that crazy lady doing now?" didn't it?! :-)

The 10,000 bit refers to the fact that scarily enough that's how many views my blog has almost had. 9959 to be exact; the figure stands at as I type. I'm rather chuffed about reaching such a milestone for my little space in blogland.

The pineapple refers to the technique I learnt from Karin Hellaby at the Festival of Quilts on Thursday August 8th. Karin adapted the traditional method of doing pineapple blocks to make it much simpler and now she travels the world teaching allsorts of quilting techniques she has developed for 21st century quilters.

It really is a quite relaxingly repetitive technique, with great effects. I'm determined to finish 6 placemats and coasters by the end of the weekend, as we don't have any other plans and Maggie has a friend over for a sleepover, so she's occupied. I managed four blocks in the class and I've done two more and now almost done all the free motion quilting on the quilt sandwiches.

This was my dining table in the middle of the afternoon:

You want to eat? I don't think so! :-)

I know the wadding is far too thick but it's the last of a batch I had, so I had just enough to do these placemats, so it's all gone.
Whilst doing the sandwiches like that, I had an idea of what stitching I wanted to quilt with and this is what I initially planned on:

I practiced with stitch width and length

After all that though, I changed my mind about what stitching to do, as I looked at the patterns in the patterned fabric I used and saw the swirls, so I had to repin all 6 placemats which was not great but all in the name of creativity :-)

 I'll show you the finished project, when I finish, surprisingly enough :-)

Below are some photos of just one project I loved from the Festival of Quilts:

 

Take care out there