Piano Runner

Tonight, I finished my first new project in my newly finished sewing room. A friend - the wife of the "Energiser Bunny" (the other half of 'They Who Build') recently had a birthday. For her birthday she got a piano, so I finally decided that a piano runner would be an ideal gift. Smaller and faster than a quilt, but still personal. I have a dozen or so table runner patterns saved, but after looking through all of them decided I didn't like any of them - for this purpose. So, I did what I normally do - designed something to a certain point then made the rest up as I went.


My original plan:

I'm not sure how big my friend's piano is, so I erred on the side of too long, rather than too short. My plan is 12 inches wide. The centre section is 60 inches, and the ends are each 12 inches long.

I made one design change from the plan above that I don't like. In the plan above, drawn in Excel (I know that seems odd, but it's a good program for drawing, because it has no page size limitations), the bar lines and music note stems are all perpendicular to the quilt edges, regardless of the wavy staff. In the actual quilt, I tried to align them to the curves of the staff. I don't like it so much. It's not bad; I just prefer to the above look.

As for the other specifics:
- Background fabric is a cream on cream
- The staff and bar lines are couched wool. I 'need' to buy a couching foot for my new machine. I had one for my old machine - it was a simple loop of metal at the front that the wool would travel through, keeping in the centre of the foot all the time. It was quite difficult to guide the wool, and keep the lines parallel.
- Each note head is a different fabric in red-brown colours. They are 2.5 x 1 inch ovals
- Minums are a full oval, with a small (0.5 x 1.5 inch) oval of the background fabric in the centre. The Teen pointed out, after I sewed them, that you should be able to see the staff line through them. I stitched a zig-zag line through them.
- Music stems are rick-rack. In real life, they're maroon; in the photo they look almost black.
- In the final, I left off the slurs (and I forgot the dot, sigh).
- Each note head is top-stitched with straight stitches, about 1/4 inch from the edge and then right on the edge.
- The entire is bag quilted, and the edge top-stitched in maroon.
- I didn't quilt it.
- The backing (there is no wadding) is polar fleece.
- The notes do form a tune (well, part of a tune, I couldn't fit the whole song on).

The finished product. Not the greatest of lighting; doesn't show the colours well.

When I next visit, I'll take a photo of it on the piano and update this entry.