Sunday, March 1, 2015

Table Runner Times Two

These improv, striped table runners were inspired by Laura's hand knit sweater (which she tells me was inspired by the pattern sample for Tanis Fiber Arts' Lifesavers sweater pattern).  I love the random color changes against the constant background of black Essex linen. I chose a variety of shot cottons from my stash, cut them into strips of random lengths and pieced them end to end.  Next, I sew the length of shot cottons into width of fabric strips of the black linen.  Then I chopped the strip sets into 14 1/2" widths.  It was all very casual and fun.  It turns out, I had enough strips to make two runners.
It's always fun to see what quilting does to differentiate two nearly identical items, as I've noted before.  So, I quilted one with straight lines and one with free motion figure eights.  I think the texture of each is so different but equally lovely. 
I chose to finish the edges with a facing, rather than binding, because I like the look of the stripes running right to the edge, with no border.  I referred to several facing tutorials.  I wanted to use a mitered corners, and I mostly followed this tutorial by Susan Brubaker, although there is a great one by Victoria Gertenbach that is even easier and does not require mitering.  It's a little more trouble than a regular double fold binging, but I'm glad I learned something new. I especially love the backing fabric I chose: four different voile prints from Anna Maria Horner's Folks line.  It was so nice to stitch.
 
 
These two 14" x 56" table runners are listed in my etsy shop. Sold out.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love how the two different styles of quilting change the table runner, and the facing is a perfect choice. One question I have had with facing was whether it would be as durable in a lap quilt as a regular two-fold binding. I love the technique but have been afraid to use it on something that would get a lot of use. Any thoughts?

Claudia said...

Really nice tablerunners and I like the design with facings. I almost always use facings on all of my smaller quilts now.

Anonymous said...

It really is amazing how much difference the quilting made, it gives two very different effects. I prefer the straight line quilting for this one.