Christmas Table Runner for Stephanie

My Quilt As You Go Table Runner

Stephanie's kitchen is green and pink so I made a table runner that would match her colors. Her Christmas tree is white, covered with pink and silver balls and other decorations.

After my Fall Table Runner, which turned into a long drawn out project, I wanted something fast and easy. If I'd had a "jellyroll" it would have been even faster, but I used scraps of fabrics left over from dresses that we sold. I cut the strips about 16 inches by 2-1/2 inches with a rotary cutter. I wanted the finished runner about 15 by 60, so I cut a piece of batting a little bigger than that, as well as the backing fabric (I used plain white, cause I had a lot of it already). I should have used temporary spray adhesive to hold the batting to the backing fabric, but I forgot till I was about half way through the whole project. I just used pins and it worked fine.

I started by placing one strip approximately in the center of the runner, right side up, and sewed it down to the batting and backing, using a 1/4" seam. Then I laid the next strip on top of that first strip, right sides together, and stitched over the first seam. I then turned the 2nd strip over and pressed the seam flat (being careful not to melt the batting!). I kept adding strips in this manner until I got to one end. Then I started doing the other end by placing a strip over that very first strip, and working toward the opposite end. You basically work from the center of the runner to the ends. It was so fast and easy. Then I had to "true up" the edges using the rotary cutter. I serged the edges just to make it easier to deal with in the binding process.

Next I embroidered snowflakes on each end. I had bought some iridescent and metallic threads during JoAnn Fabric's after Thanksgiving Doorbuster Sale and tried them out. I slowed the machine speed down, used a metallic needle and still had the thread break a few times. [Sidebar: I had lots of problems with the next couple of projects I did after the snowflakes - thread shredding, "nests" and so on. After researching the problems, I realized it was operator error (always is). I have a habit of impatiently pulling the thread cone off when I'm changing threads, and pulling the thread tail back through the needle and tension mechanism when I should snip the thread and pull the extra piece of thread thru the needle. I happened to see a glimmer of that iridescent thread in the "works" and once I got it out I didn't have any more problems. I guess it does really pay to read and follow the directions.]

After the thread issues, I was anxious to get done with the table runner quickly. I had already made bias binding out of the green stripe fabric, but at the last minute decided to use lime green jumbo ric rac to finish off the edges. It was super fast and looked really cute.

I have a couple more runners cut and ready to sew. I'll post pics of those when (if?) I finish them.