an apple a day tablecloth

Having grown up on a five-acre apple orchard, apples have a fond place in my heart. When I stumbled across this fabric in the bargain section at Hancock Fabrics, I knew I had to make something using it. Have you seen a cuter apple print? (unfortunately, the selvedge has no labeling, so I have no idea who makes it if I want to track more down ...) But what to make? My first thought was kitchen. My Mom's been on the hunt for a bright, cheerful tablecloth for the better part of a year now with no luck. Bright and cheerful? Check. Tablecloth it is!

My plan was to feature the apple print, and then make up for the lack of width with some piecing around the perimeter (my sisters got me the dimensions of Mom's table, and then I added 9 inches to each side to give it a good "overhang"). With so many colors in this print, there were a lot of different ways I could go in terms of picking a color scheme. Since I wanted to keep it bright and cheerful, I decided to stick with orangey yellows and throw in some classic apple red. I ended up doing long horizontal strips of the yellows and oranges, with smaller pieces of red in between each strip (just enough to keep it interesting, but not so much that the red took over). I staggered my strips (see below), a method I love for a couple of reasons: it looks interesting, and I don't have to obssess over making sure things line up perfectly.

And here's the finished "top." I am so happy with how it turned out! My plan is to attach a backing (a red flat sheet purchased from Wal-Mart) and finish the edges with binding. I'll do some simple quilting to hold the front and back together, but nothing too elaborate.

With any luck, I'll have this finished by the end of this long weekend! (fingers crossed)