Throwback to Thanksgiving

Last October, I began working on a table topper for the Thanksgiving table.  I decided on a palette of rust/brown and gold, and this pattern that I had squirreled away:

It's called Afternoon Delight, by Tiger Lily Press.  I liked the fact that the middle section was just a pretty piece of fabric so if you wanted to put a centerpiece in the middle of your table, like a candle or a bowl of fruit, you wouldn't be covering up your hard earned piecework.  For my center fabric, I used up the last scrap of Castlewood fabric that was leftover from making  this quilt.

The first step in the pattern is to cut an octagon for the center, and surround it with stripped  pieces:

After sewing the strips to the center, you trim them back with your rotary cutter.  The final step, the border strips, are sewn around all 8 sides and then trimmed as in the first step.

I went with a light colored border, but I felt it still needed something, so I added an additional border of a floral fabric that combined all the colors in the stripped pieces.

After trimming, I added a lightweight batting and some simple quilting and it was ready for my Thanksgiving table.

Here's how it looked on the table at Thanksgiving.  I like how the pilgrim and turkey nutcrackers give a hint of the Christmas holidays right around the corner.   The white milk glass candle holders on either side of the nutcrackers were a wedding gift to my parents from my great, great aunt, and have graced many a Thanksgiving table.