10 Carrot Gold!

The bunnies are back for more carrots! 

Last year, I made these adorable carrot treat bags using Island Batik fabrics and a tutorial on the Make It Love It site.

I purchased these ceramic  bunnies when our boys were little, and bring them out every spring.  They never looked cuter than when pictured with these vibrant (giant!) orange carrots. The treat bags were all given away as gifts, so clearly we needed some carrots which would stay here.

In this year's Island Batik Ambassador box, among the stack of blenders were some gorgeous orange and greens, as well as Aurifil threads in coordinating colours.  The fabrics obviously wanted to become carrots, so off we went. 

I drew out my desired design in EQ8, elongated triangles separated 

by narrow sashing to make them stand out.

The carrot tops were easy to draw as foundation patterns.

The whole thing took no time to sew. My batting is Hobbs Thermore, which was also included in our Ambassador boxes, because it quilts beautifully without adding bulk. You don't want lumpy table runners.

The quilting is all free-motion, and unmarked - my favourite way to quilt.  The curved cross-hatching added between the carrot tops was done with a ruler and ruler foot.

A green binding sets off the colours nicely (it's an Island Batik blender called "leprechaun")

The back is another blender - daffodil - in yellow.

The runner will stay on the table throughout spring.  The very imaginative Cheryl Coville - to whom I owe a huge thank you for pattern editing - suggested this would be fun done with creamy whites for parsnips, and red for beets.  She's right, of course (she always is). The length of the runner is easy to adjust to suit your needs - just add or subtract carrots as needed. Your runner may end up as 24 carrot, but I settled for 10.

A huge thank you to sponsors Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, and Aurifil thread for supplying the materials.

The pattern is available from my website as a mail-out, or a download.  Locally, you will also be able to find it very soon at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium.  Happy (almost!) Spring.