Quiltingboard Forums - First quilting project gift

I've made a couple of tablerunners before, but this is the first one I made to give as a gift. A couple that we know through our motorcycling chapter invited us over for Christmas Dinner, and we wanted to give them a nice gift as a thank-you, so I thought it would be a good excuse to try the French Braid pattern that I've been fascinated with for a long time. I used a free pattern from Quiltbug.com that I downloaded last March. I'm still very new at machine quilting, so I chose to do a simple outline on one edge of the bars and bring that out through the border. I hand-quilted two gingko leaves in the middle section, just enough to hold the batting in place.

I'm rather challenged at picking fabrics and didn't get any help at my local quilt shop, even after an associate approached me and I said I was having a hard time. Oh well, that's been my experience so far, and I wasn't even on my motorcycle this time. Our friends have a lot of asian art in their home, so I found a couple of asian-inspired fabrics that really struck me. Then I had a hard time finding coordinates to go as the bars of the braid. Knowing they would only be about an inch wide once I was done, I didn't think any more of the asian prints would work, plus I didn't want it to be too busy. I ended up choosing two batiks: a nearly hot pink with a leafy motif and a brown with a lot of pink to it. Although my husband and daughter thought they looked fine together, I know my limitations, so I took it over to my friend's sister's house. She's an art quilter and has a marvelous stash of fabrics. Well, the end result was that she let me swap her for a couple of gorgeous hand-dyes, which work well with the two other fabrics. I'm not sure what I would have ended up with if I'd gone with my first choices, but it sure wouldn't have looked like this!

When we arrived and presented them with the runner, rolled up in a nice gift bag, not only were they pleased, but they put it right on the dinner table. Laura, the wife, said that since she did crafts, she was in a unique position to appreciate how much work had gone into it. I pointed out that if the colors on the front were too much, she could just flip it over and have the chrysanthemum print on the back. She replied, I don't think that's ever going to happen! And I found out that she just happens to love chrysanthemums.

The next morning, the husband called up to thank us for coming the night before and to rave about the tablerunner. He said that they studied it over their morning coffee and were amazed at all the detail.

So, sometimes one's heartfelt gift is appreciated. Happy New Year everyone!

This is my first time ever posting pictures, so I hope they work.