St. Patrick's Day Table Runner

Having had great success with my Christmas table runner back in December when I was just weeks into my quilting "career" I decided I would utilize the same pattern (from a Missouri Star Quilt Company Youtube Tutorial) to create a St. Patrick's Day table runner. 

I headed to Joann Fabrics as it is the only close fabric store near my house that I've found this far. I got a few types of St. Patrick's day fabric, including a really cute Snoopy/Charlie Brown fabric. As I started on this project it felt much easier than my first table runner. 

I am quickly learning that I do not have good quilting math skills. While making this table runner I found that I actually had enough fabric to make 2 table runners! (Which I did). I even had left overs to just play around and make random blocks. 

Here are is my finished table runner:

Fun Stitching used during quilting

Table runner in use on our magazine rack

Still horrible at binding... that will be a skill in progress.
I also used a decorative stitch here, and contrasting fabric.
Poor decision on my part! 

Shamrock backing and contrasting quilting.

Valentine's Day Candle Mat and Table Runner

Pinterest and Craftsy have been so inspiring for me! And a bit addicting, as I am sure they probably are for most of you too. 

When looking for valentines day projects I started with fabric before I decided what to make. While on a trip to Joann's If found some great flannel solids on sale so I bought four colors of pink and then white as well. 

Next I set out cutting squares out, I did all my cutting first and then started creating  patchwork heart sets. I decided on making a table runner and a candle mat. 

For the candle mat it was pretty simple, I just took the heart block patter consisting of squares and half square triangles and sewed them together and then added the backing, backing, and binding. I did stitch in the ditch, with my decorative heart stitch around the heart shape for quilting. 

The table runner consisted of three of the heart squares, each with a different background color and heart color. Then I used white sashing and a white backing and binding. I stitched in the ditch around the hearts on this as well, but I also added some decorative heart stitching on the sashing, utilizing pink thread to help it stand out. 

If I were to re-do the table runner I would have put the hearts side by side, horizontally instead of up and down, vertically as they are in the picture below. However, for my first attempts at sewing with flannel while doing patchwork I felt pretty good about these two projects. 

Matching fabrics and preparing binding

Today during lunch my goal was to find a backing fabric, border fabric and batting for the tree skirt that is underway. I took two of my completed coasters with me to Hobby Lobby to help me in matching the process. For the backing and binding I ended up choosing a red fabric with white polka dots, and for the backing a white fabric with green and red Christmas trees. For the batting I choose a type called natural and warm. For the batting I decided to buy extra for fear that I'd calculated my finished piece size incorrectly. As for the binding and border I knew based on the Missouri Quilt video I needed at least 15 inches for the border and so I believe I decided on 25 inches worth to ensure I had the right amount of it for the border and binding.

When I got home I cut out my border pieces and attached them as instructed in the video. The method they used to have all the borders be straight edges was a blessing! So easy. Next I had to take the backing fabric, batting and tree skirt and pin them together for quilting.

Last week my fantastic quilting teacher had shown me how to use a large piece of cardboard (mine was left over from a large piece of furniture we'd purchased) to secure your backing fabric right side down with pins to ensure it was as tight as possible. After getting the backing secured I needed to lay down the batting. The type I bought was having static cling to everything it touched so the hubby helped me lay it out on the backing fabric. Next we laid out the skirt top an I was able to begin pinning. I pinned the outer border and then squares within. I saw one video in my research that says you should have pins one fist apart from each-other, but there was no way I was going to spend the time putting a pin in all 64 squares. I think I had 24 all together.

After pinning I cut the excess patting and binding down to .5 inches from the edge of the border. This helped a lot when I started quilting. For my Table Runner I had all the excess batting still attached which made it hard to maneuver in the sewing machine. I quilted four areas using stitch 29 again (I think it's my favorite). I used silver rayon thread and did the stitching at speed two. Another great tip my quilting instructor taught me was with the Rayon strings the need room to move and if you put them where your normal spool goes they'll tighten up and potentially your string will break mid sew. So I did what she showed me, I got a coffee cup from the kitchen put the spool in it and in wound a little to release the tension and then set it up in my upper threader. This worked great! I was quilted the border, and 3 inside block sets as you'll see in the photos. I figured this would give good definition on the skirt top and bottom.

After all the quilting was done I cut my binding. I had five strips of about 40 inches each, I sewed the ends together and ironed them in half and finally called it a night.

Border sewed on, ready to meet the backing fabric and batting.

Close up of Skirt Top prior to pinning

Cardboard where I laid out and pinned all three pieces and then cut to size.

Backing Fabric

All three layers pinned together ready to quilt.

Closeup of the Top Stitching in Silver Rayon Thread

Closeup of backing, to show fabric as well as under stitching, if you look closely you'll see the 4 areas that were quilted.

Shopping for Materials

Today I spent the morning organizing my quilting area and researching what type of finishing items I'd need to buy to complete my table runner. While on my lunch break at work I headed to Joann Fabric to pick up a dark blue fabric to use as backing for my table runner and then some batting. While there I felt a bit overwhelmed in trying to find a matching backing, so I just chose a plain dark blue instead of trying to match any of the patterns already in the table runner. The nice thing about this was the fabric was $3.99 a yard, and I had a 50% off coupon via the Joann's Iphone App (a must have!). With the help of the cutting station service attendant I was able to find some insul-bright batting which is made for going in "hot-pads and oven mitts". This was on sale for $6.99 a yard from $7.99 (Wish it had been normal price because I would have been able to use my 50% coupon on it if it was regular price!).  I picked up a spool of thread there too as I have already gone through one spool with all my practicing!

1 Yard Backing, 1 Yard Batting, 1 Spool Thread ($11.69)

After I gathered all these goods I watched two very quick youtube videos about how to add batting/backing to a table runner but I didn't feel confident I could do it on my own on my first try. So I reached out to my great Quilting 101 instructor, she host classes at her house Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights where you can bring your projects and she'll assist you in completing them. What a great deal right?! I sent a photo of the runner thus far and she said she could help, so I'm excited to get this finished tomorrow :) Can't wait to show the results.

Day One, Week Two: Table Runner Project

Wow! I've made it one week, seven whole days since I have begun quilting and I feel like I'm getting the hang of this! 

Today I decided to see if I could find a Christmas Tree Skirt Quilt project, I found a really cute one from the Missouri Quilt Company, which they have YouTube Video for how to make. I watched the video and thought I can make this, so I headed to their site and found they were still having a great Cyber Monday sale, in addition their always $5 flat shipping. For the skirt you need to have 2 Charm Packs (a pack that comes with about 40-42 5" squares of different fabrics bundled for you!) and a border and backing fabric. I purchased all three of those items plus the deal of the day (a charm pack of fruits/veggies prints for 75 cents!), and a marking pin that erases with the heat of the iron all for $35. That order should be here by next week, so I think it will be my week 3 project. 

For my week two project I settled on a Holiday Table Runner pattern I found on McCall's website. Now sure the pattern says it's for Halloween and you need 9 types of fabric, but I knew I could do it with 5 fabrics and in a Christmas/Winter motif. For the table runner instead of each border being different I alternated the outer 4 borders, and had a unique border in the middle surrounding the center square. The challenge with the table runner was it got large fast and was not the easiest to sew. 

Two things that came in handy though: 
1.) The extended table on my sewing machine. I added the extra legs and that helped keep the part of the fabric I wasn't sewing up and out of the way. 
2.) Pinning the strips. Everyone who I watch in YouTube Videos who have been quilting for a while say pinning isn't always necessary and they hate it. Thankfully my quilting instructor had agreed with this sentiment but still made me learn to pin anyways. I used those pinning skills to make sure all my patches lined up properly. 

Here is what the completely sewn together table runner looked like just off the sewing machine:

Top View, notice there are triangles at the end of each row. We take care of those in the next step.

Closeup so you can see the fabrics and hopefully my decent sewing efforts :)

Once all my strips were sewn (ps if I'm using the wrong kind of "sewn" please let me know!) on I  had to cut the table runner down to the right size. Scary! So the cutting instructions said to leave 7.25 inches from the middle of the silver squares, the problem is my table runner is twice the length of my cutting pad so I had to do it in 4 cuts. Thankfully math again came into save the day and I was able to keep everything straight.  Here is where I left off at the end of the night with the table runner. 

Cut to Size! Full Length View. (Would have put it on the table but that's where all my quilting stuff resides.)

Cute Fabrics Right? Who Needs 9 Different patterns!

After I finished sewing the last strips and cutting I had to retire for the evening, but there is definitely more to come on this as I plan to make this my first finished project. Meaning, I better find a video on how to add batting, a border, and "stitch in the ditch!"