Run, Run, Runner

Mom, this one's for you.

Last month, my mom saw a runner that I had completed.  She loved it so much and from what she has told me, has been talking about it since.  Every chance she gets, she asked me if I put pictures of it up on the blog yet because she told her friends to check it out.

The runner that I made was from the Zig Zag Charm Pack Table Runner tutorial, from Missouri Star Quilts.  It is quick to make, not very difficult to do and is good practice at lining up corners.  All it takes is a charm pack, some batting and a piece for backing fabric.

The two charm packs that I chose to work with are Winter's Lane by Moda, and Ho Ho Ho Let It Snow by Nancy Halvorsen.  I finished the Winter's Lane runner first but didn't take any pictures of the process, so when I was making the second, I was sure to take some pictures of the steps.



 Here are some pictures of the Winter's Lane runner.  This is the original one that my mom saw when she came over to my house.  It utilizes all 42 pieces of a charm pack.  I made this one a bit after we bought our new machine and I wanted to try out some embroidery on it too.  The back has three snowflake designs embroidered on each side.  It was a pain to get these just right because I had to measure out seams and draw a grid out that matched the front panel.  In the end, the runner looks great and I am very proud of it.

The next one I made was from the Ho Ho Ho Let it Snow charm pack.  I took pictures to run you all through the process with me.  The first step was to lay all of the squares out in a pattern that I liked.  I group all of the squares by color and just started laying them down.  Once they are all in their spot the sewing can start.  The next step was to sew the squares together until you have 10 strips (2 strips of 2, 2 strips of 4, and 6 strips
of 5).


The strips then get sewn together.  It seems like it would be tricky sewing these offset strips together, but this pattern makes it really easy.  You just continue to sew into the single square and the stitches will be covered in a later step.  I continued to sew all the strips together until the top of the runner was pieced and complete.

From here on I forgot to take pictures (I know I'm a terrible person).  After the top was completed, I needed to make my quilt sandwich.  In this case it is made a little differently because of the absence of a binding.  For this project the quilt sandwich is layerd (from bottom up) batting, backing facing up, top facing down.  I pinned the layers together and took my sandwich to the sewing machine.  I ran a stitch around the outside of the topper using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  I pivitoed in the corners so it was one continuous seam.  I also left about 2 inches open on one end, so I could turn the project out after some trimming of extra fabric.  I had to go in and snip off the tips of the corners, right up to the stitch line.  I also docked the inside corners.  This step needs to be done so the ending project will lay flat.  Next, you turn it out.  I used a chopstick to push out my corners and pressed the entire project.  I then needed to run a 1/4 inch top stitch around the whole project.  This not only made a nice stitch to look at but it also stitched up the opening.  Now it was ready to quilt.  I decided for this runner, I was just going to stitch in the ditch.  I did my quilting and the project was finished.

Here are the final products.  I gave one to my mom and one to Ben's mom, but they decorated our home for a little while first.  Using a different fabric family gave the second runner a totally different look than the first.  I think the HoHoHo Let it Snow runner is much more playful and has more of a bright happy attitude. 

To me the Winter's Lane runner envokes thoughts of winter itself.  I see it and want a cup of hot chocolate and to sit by a fire.  I do like them both and they both would have worked in different areas of our home but alas, they went to good homes and I am sure they are being loved there.  I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season! Until next time.