The Christmas Table Runner

Hello! I hope you have all had a lovely relaxing Sunday. I have spent the majority of the day stitching and quilting my new table runner.
In my last post I mentioned about how I fell in love with some fabric at work, then ended up buying some complimentary fabrics to go with the linen snowflake, followed by extensive research into different table runner tutorials. I am so pleased that I went with this one from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. It couldn't have been easier. (And most of my squares matched up pretty nicely- except for one!)

I cut up all of my fabrics at the beginning of the week, so all I had to do today was figure out a random order and stitch the squares into rows, and the rows into a zig zag block. I used 37 squares in total which just perfectly fits the table, leaving a small gap at the top and bottom so it doesn't get in the way of people sitting at the ends.

Following the tutorial step by step was really lovely as it felt like I was making it with Jenny (the tutorial guide) and that we were achieving together. There is no binding on this runner, it is a 'stitch right sides together, leave a gap and turn the right way around' type of project.

(The red ticking fabric is so curly!!)

I was super chuffed with it in this state, but still had the quilting to do now that the wadding (or batting as the US crafty people call it) was stitched inside.

To get the textured quilted effect I had to do some 'stitch in the ditch' which basically means stitching over the seams and trying to be as neat and invisible as possible. Not always easy with such a large project I think I managed to do quite a neat job, although I did jump out of the ditch a fair few times. Never mind!

I probably made things a little harder for myself as I used curtain weight interior fabric rather than the thinner patchwork cotton. But I love the different textures that are now in the runner with a mix of cottons and linens, weights and print types.

Can't wait to set the table for Christmas!!