A project for ME

Since it is my birthday today, I am making something for myself.  This is very hard for me to do.  It makes me feel very selfish to make myself something, but I'm going to anyway.  I'm in the process of putting together another table runner.  Ended up with basically the same fabric as the last one but not going to follow the previous pattern.  Again, I'm not using an official pattern, just a basic idea of what I want and putting it down on paper to follow.  I'm excited.  I've already got the pieces cut out and ready to sew together. In fact, I'm going to stop here to work on it...after eating the delicious lasagna Joe made me for my birthday dinner!  (We'll see how long it takes me to post pictures this time...haha!)

Sunday 4/25/2010
     So, I've almost completed the table runner.  I only need to finish the binding and wash it.

     I made a sketch of my basic idea for the table runner.

     I started off with fabrics from Moda Shangri La collection and then the stuff on the right is some fabric that I thought would coordinate well with it.  (I'm not a pre-washer of fabric.  I take short-cuts where I can.)

     And this is what I ended up choosing to use.  Luckily the Shangri La fabric was from a honey bun so it already came in strips.  (I LOVE it when things work out that way - the less cutting/ironing, the better!)  I just had to trim it down to the right measurement and then cut out the fabrics from the other pile to match.

    Next I sewed the strips together.  Then I added the border fabric.

     Once the top is together, I made a sandwich, laying the backing fabric right side down on the table (after ironing) and the smoothing out the batting on top.

      I placed the runner fabric on top to complete the sandwich and pinned it all together while smoothing it out.  Afterwards, I trimmed the backing fabric and batting leaving at least 1 inch around the entire perimeter.

     Then, I took it to Miss White (referred to in previous post) to quilt.  I quilted basic lines.  Ended up being lined on every other strip except for the center 4 strips (they all got quilted.)

      I quilted the border then trimmed the edges of the entire sandwich to make it even.

 I have sewn the binding on to the quilt, but am in the process of hand stitching it to finish it.  Then to wash and I will post the final picture/s.  This was fun and quick to make and it makes me very happy that I will get to hang onto this one!

April 28, 2010
     So I finished the binding yesterday and washed the runner last night.  I gave myself a break and didn't touch it on Monday.  Hope you like it.  Here is the final product: