Festival of small projects – Day 11

FESTIVE AND EASY TABLE RUNNER

Good Sunday morning everyone!

Are you having fun with the BLOG HOP PARTY AND GIVEAWAYS ?

If you just tuned-in today, the link above will take you to Michele Foster’

s fenomenal Quilting Gallery web site, with all the information about this great birthday celebration – Happy Birthday Quilting Gallery!! Lost of fun and great prizes to win!

Here on my blog, just leave me a comment for a chance to win great prize (see previous post!) and if you want to double or triple the chance – “Like” my Facebook page (link on the right side!) or follow my blog and leave me additional comment that you did.

I am so excited to be a prat of this great fun and so very honored and humbled that you all are visiting here! Thank you all for all the wonderful comments and kind words!

Of course, here is the continuation of our Festival of small projects – today, it is a very easy but very festive table runner for the holidays, using again some of those 3-D flowers you learned to make on Day 2 (click HERE for that tutorial). Can you tell I LOVE those flowers – LOL!

Let’s get started:

My table runner finished 18″ x 56″, but you can vary that to fit your needs. For the one of this size, you will need:

– Main t. runner fabric – 1/2 yard (you will need a 10 1/2″ strip along the whole width of fabric, and FOUR 3 1/2″ squares)

– Basket fabric – TWO 10/1/2″ x 5 1/2″ rectangles

– Thin border – FOUR 1 1/4″ strips of red (along the whole width of fabric)

– Wide border – FOUR – 3 1/2″ strips of border fabric (by the whole width of fabric)

– Poinsettias – you will need 5″ circles and 3″ circles of different red fabric (about 3-4 circles per flower), 5″ circles of green fabric (for leaves, one circle will give you 2 leaves) and 2″ circles of yellow/gold fabric for each flower center

– You will also need a 20″ x 58″ piece of batting and backing and if you choose to do regular binding, fabric for binding (I will use red in mine!) – you will need FOUR 2 1/4″ strips (along the whole width of fabric) for binding.

1. For the main body of the runner, cut a 10 1/2″ strip along the whole width of fabric. My fabric was 44″ wide, so I trimmed it to be 40″ long and used that extra piece to cut my 3 1/2″ squares (see bellow).

2. To make the Baskets: cut TWO 10 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ rectangles from chose basket fabric (black print in mine) and FOUR 3 1/2″ squares of the main t. runner fabric (see photo on the right)

3. Mark one diagonal line, from corner to corner, on the WRONG side of all your 3 1/2″ squares.

4. Place those squares on the basket fabric rectangles, RIGHT sides together and as shown in the photo (raw edges aligning and diagonal line touching the edges of the rectangle). Pin in place to secure tfor stitching.

5.Stitch on the drawn line on all squares (total of 4 squares), to get a basket rectangle looking like the one on the photo.

6. Flip up the green triangles and press and here is your “basket” for the flowers! It should measure 10 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ now.

To finish the table runner:

1. Simply attach the two baskets you just made to the two narrow sides of the main table runner strip(one that is 10 1/2″ x 40″). Runner will look like the one on the photo.

NOTE: – I left the whole strip plain on purpose since I figured usually something (like a center piece or candle or …) sits on the table runner, but you can see how easily you could add maybe one block in the middle, or some applique, if you like!

To add borders, I was auditioning two possibilities – add just the main border print:

…or add a narrow, accent border strip too:

I thik you would agree that red one makes it so much more festive! So, form the FOUR strips of each fabric that I said to cut (above), I took one of each (wide and narrow) and cut it in half to get two strips that are about 20″ long – those were strips for two short sides of the runner. Another strip also got cut in half – those halves were added to the remaining two LONG strips to get the needed length for the LONG sides of the runner ( adding ~20″ long strip to the ~40″ long strip will make ~60″ long strip needed for the long sides of the runner)
Once I had all the strips in needed length, I joined one narrow (red) strip to one wide (green print) strip first, then sewed them to my runner and then mitered the corners and – VOILA! Main part of the runner is done:

Those baskets now need to be filled with festive Poinsettia flowers!!
NOTE: If you plan to some machine (or hand) quilting on your table runner, it is easier to do it BEFORE you add all the flowers. You can quilt and bind your table runner first and then “plant” your flowers. 🙂

If you didn’t make any 3-D flowers with me so far (from previous tutorials), click HERE to see how to make them. How many flowers and how big is totally up to you – I made 3 large ones for each side, but it could be more, less…Here is how my basket looks:

Once you secure your flowers to the runner – TA-DAH!! Your festive runner is done!
Put a centerpiece or a candle with the matching candle wreath (from previous tutorial) for a great holiday table!

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy project. As always, let me know what you think or if you made one – I would love to hear from you or see the picture!
Of course – leaving a comment on this post too qualifies you for a prize drawing at the end of the BLOG HOP (if you didn’t leave one already on previous post).
Have a wonderful Sunday,

Marija

Winnie Olsen says:

September 18, 2019 at 6:15 pm

Just discovered your blog and fell in love with poinsettia table runner. I plan on making one in time for Christmas. Thank you! It is beautiful.

carol says:

September 6, 2019 at 10:09 pm

I really love basket of poinsettias table runner, but I cannot find tutorial on 3D flowers. thank you for any assistance you can give me.

Marija says:
September 6, 2019 at 10:12 pm

Hi Carol, here is the direct link to that blog post:
http://maraquiltdesigns.com/2011/12/festival-of-small-projects-day-2/

Hope it’s helps! If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

Anonymous says:

December 27, 2016 at 6:42 pm

Just discovered this blog. Really like the poinsettia runner.

Diane Stein says:

August 10, 2016 at 5:08 pm

I don't see how the edges of the runner are finished? You don't mention the batting and backing… Forgive me, I am new to quilting. Been sewing for a long time, but new to quilting.