Currently Stitching: Seasonal Table Runners

Happy Labor Day folks! I love a good three day weekend! I don't usually work Mondays anyway because the bar is closed, but I still enjoy the spirit of an extra day off. Everyone is out with their family enjoying some spectacular weather! I can smell the bonfires and bbq's from my house and can't wait to get some grilling going myself! But first, let's talk about my assignments from the weekend. Table runners!

I made six in total and they're all Fall or Winter themed. I always like to get started on a project line up by going over the instructions and precutting all the pieces I need. A lot like when I prepare for quilt retreat. 

It usually takes me a few times reading through to make sure I understand everything. I work my way through the cutting instructions one section at a time. I put the pieces into piles so I can move through the steps in the pattern. 

After I've got things organized, I like to lay out all the entire design on the wall or table so I understand where all the pieces fit. Then I go over the instructions again before I start sewing. 

These are the first three I got cut and laid out. I've never worked with any of these patterns and it's been really fun! It's good to be challenged with new blocks. It's also really nice to have a quick project that can get knocked out in a day or two! 

I began with the smaller parts - sewing, trimming and pressing. Once I got all the blocks sewn I laid it out again. Then I made sure they're all trimmed to the same size and the points lined up.

Then I moved on to round two!

I got the next three runners cut up and laid out. Like with the other ones, I sorted them out by the steps so I could work through the instructions more easily.After I started sewing, I took my time and pressed each block according to the directions. It really helps to remove extra bulk. I also made sure to square up the blocks so they're more likely sew together the way they should. This silvery winter one has a lot of setting triangles and I wanted to make sure all my points line up. All the prep work helps make sure this happens!

For these flower wreaths I spent a good chunk of time fussy cutting and laying out the blocks. I wanted to try and get all the pieces to lay in as close to a circle as possible. It took a lot of time and effort, but it was worth it!

These little pieces for the pumpkins also took some time. The pattern says to cut all the triangles and then sew them together, which means a lot of potential for warping. So I used quite a bit of starch and pins (and a lot of patience) but I'm happy with how the points turned out. And I'm pleased to say the blocks did not buckle!

Generally when I make pinwheel blocks, I make multiple triangles at a time, and then piece them. This time I followed the pattern instructions, even though working with the bias made me nervous. 

After I got the individual blocks done, I sewed them all up! Here's how they all turned out!

I love that they're all different and so festive! 

I had a lot of fun working on all of them. While I maybe wouldn't recommend doing this many over a weekend, I would encourage everyone to try some new table runner patterns! They're pretty, fast and so satisfying! 

At this point I'd like to make mention all of the scraps. I ended up with quite the pile of little leftover squares and rectangles. Most of these projects also had a lot of snowballed corners.

About halfway through I decided to sew them twice to make a bunch of half square triangles and then trimmed them. They'll go in the scrap pile. I have a bin of half square triangles from left over projects.

I used to have a huge bag of little triangles and it would make me crazy to piece them one at a time. So now I just sew two lines as I work on projects like this so they're ready to go in the future! Any other bits of odds and ends form these projects get sorted by color and put into the cabinet for scrap and crumb quilting!

Thanks for following along with these projects! They're off to be quilted and then bound. Check in later to see what other seasonal projects I'm working on!