Table Runner Archives - Yearning to Create

A while ago I pinned a basket weave quilt pattern that I saw here at honeybear lane. I thought she did an awesome job and I wanted to try it. I decided to start small so it would be easier to handle – besides, I needed a little runner for a corner cabinet.

This was fun and so quick and easy! The part that took the longest was choosing the fabric! I cut the fabric into strips – can’t even remember what size I did. I think it was 1 1/2 inch wide strips, and obviously the lengths varied as you can see.

I securely pinned each strip to my batting piece which was actually just a piece of a dropcloth – it was just to add a little weight to the project so it was perfect.

So first I laid down my bottom piece (right side out), my dropcloth piece, and then pinned my strips through it all.

Then I pinned my first piece to be woven and just took it through the strips.

And then I just kept adding more and more strips and wove them though, pinning securely at each end, and sometimes in the center.

I love that you can see how it’s going to look as you do it.

There it is – all woven and pinned.

Next step was to sew up and down every line. Yes, you’re going to get poked a few times – wear gloves if you must!

The sewing lines as seen on the backing.

And there it is, all sewn with the edges trimmed – how easy is that?

I think the frayed edges add to it’s charm!

It needed an edge though so I just cut a thin strip, diagonally sewed pieces together to make it long enough, and then ironed in a fold line.

(The other day my 20 year old daughter approached me looking all thoughtful and asked, “Mom, what’s the opposite of ‘irony’?” I thought she had been studying or something so I started wracking my brain to try to be of some help to her. “Um, let’s see, opposite of ‘irony’ , um . . .” (as I’m trying to recall my grammar lessons from so long ago). And then I admitted defeat. “I’m not sure Elle,” I humbly answered. “Do you know?” Then she got the cutest sheepish little smile and said, “Yes, ‘wrinkley'”. And then she scampered off giggling, leaving me standing there, shaking my head, feeling more than a little bit foolish! And even more so when I tried the same joke on one of my other daughters, and she knew the answer!)

The iron thing made me recall that little incident!

Anyway, I pinned and sewed it on, leaving the raw edges showing again because I like that look.

There is the finished back side . . .

. . . and the finished front side.

I didn’t bother to wash mine. When I do, the edges will fray up a little more.

That added a little more colour to the corner. Kat approves!

I’ve always loved quilted things – and someday I hope to be somewhat good at quilting!!!

Let me tell you how this project came to be. The new home we’re building has an open kitchen, dining area and great room – which is exactly what I wanted! We can add the extra leaf to the table (we already have one leaf in all the time) and seat about twelve people, and the table will just sneak on over towards the great room and borrow a little space temporarily. Anyway, I wanted to use blues, greens and browns for the decorating. Our leather couches are blue, furniture is brown and I just like green along with them, and my plants are green (unless they’re brown because I forgot to water them!). So I wanted something that would tie all these colours in together, and I just wasn’t finding that special pillow, or area rug, etc. So I decided to make something that would tie my colours together.

Here’s Mac deciding to help me. It is so much easier to create while she’s sleeping!!!

The first step was to cut out all the little squares and then line them up the way I wanted them so the colours were mixed up pretty good. Taking a picture of this and printing it was a very smart thing to do, especially if you have little ones around who like to mess things up!!! (see above photo!)

Actually, the real first step was to collect fabric. I’ve been doing this for years – remnant bins, leftovers from other projects, a fat quarter here and a fat quarter there.

After lining everything up, I stacked them into piles for easy keeping. They sat like that for months until I finally got to them.

I found that the easiest way to sew them together was to make a little banner like this. I know it only looks like the wrong side of one square, but there are two squares sewn together (right sides together). Then I cut them apart, every two squares, and that gave me the four squares together to make a bigger square. I know that’s all clear as mud, right?

To recap, I made strips of two squares, then sewed them together to make bigger squares made up of four small squares.

Then I sewed my bigger squares together to make a strip.

The backside. I pressed all my seams to the darker fabric side.

I found that my first two strips of squares were shorter than the rest of my strips. I must have been using a larger seam allowance when I started, and because I did all this in spurts of time when I had it, I’d forget what I did. I ended up removing the first four rows of squares because they just didn’t match up very well. I have something else in mind to use those strips for!

Love the colours!!! I find that I look at the colours and not at the corners that don’t line up perfectly.

And now for the transformation into a table runner . . .

The hardest part was choosing the fabric I wanted to be the edging!!! Obviously, I finally made a decision and cut the strips and sewed them on.

I didn’t have any batting laying around, but I needed to add some weight and stability to my runner. So I decided to use something that everyone has on hand . . .

. . . a raggedy old towel!!! So I lined it up on the table – towel on the bottom, then my backing fabric and then my creation of squares (these two fabrics were right sides together). Then I sewed around the whole thing and cut off all the excess fabric.

Now I’m sure I’m doing lots of things wrong, but I seem to learn best by trial and error. And not knowing how to do something doesn’t stop me (at least not in crafting – haha!!!).

Turning this baby inside out and hoping that I lined things up right!!!

Phew, it worked! That blue towel is my ironing board on the kitchen counters! I do have an ironing board, but I think it’s in the camper (remember, living in transition here and making do with what’s on hand!).

That open part is where I turned it. To close it I just ironed the fabric under and then top stitched over it.

Here I demonstrate my version of quilting – stitching in the ditch. Works for me and holds everything nicely in place. Top stitching around the edge finished it all off nicely.