Dining Table Runner

Finally I got some time to write this long pending tutorial. Just as a note, this will probably not be the best as I forgot to take pictures in between while making it. Still it will give overall idea of what I did.

Fig 1. Complete runner

As usual this is a quilt which means it has 3 layers: Top, Batting and Backing which are then quilted to hold it together and then bound together with the binding. 

Design: 

I don't remember where I saw this design so I am not going to put any link here. I wanted to make table runner of size 40" * 15".

Materials: 

Basic tools: scissors, quilting pins, cutting board, rotary cutter, ruler and sewing machine.

Note: Seam allowance for all stitches is 1/4"

Top:

If you look at the picture above, you can see that that top is composed of 3 big blocks and the surrounding layer of small blocks. I made the inner blocks first and then attached the boundary strips of smaller blocks. To make one block:

Take 8, 3" * 3" of each of the 2 contrast color prints fabric. These will form 16, 3"*3" squares as shown in Fig. 5. The way its done is by taking 1 piece of each color and put the right sides together and then draw a line with a pencil/pen diagonal as shown in Fig 3. Stitch straight on either side of this line leaving 1/4" seam allowance as shown in Fig. 4. Once you are done will all 16 square pairs, cut on the line you had drawn earlier. Press/iron the seams an usual. You will end up with 16 squares similar to Fig. 5.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

The next step is to join these squares and form a nice big square block as shown in Fig. 7. Combine squares to form rows first and then combine these to form the complete block. I think I ended up with 8.5" * 8.5" block.

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

The next thing I did was cut 4, 2" * 11" strips of off white cloth. Attach these strips as boundary to the above block. You want to attach them such that the strip starts at one corner of the block and continues beyond the end on that side. It may be more clear in Fig. 9. Once you have all 3 blocks finished, its time to make the strips to combine these. I used some leftover fabric to make these. I think I used 5-6 pattern fabrics to make them. I don't remember how big I cut the squares to combine them to form a strip but you can measure the completed block above and based on that, cut smaller square blocks to form a strip to attach to its 2 sides. You need to make 4 such strips so that you can attach all 3 blocks above. Once that is done, you need to make 2 longer strips for the complete length of the runner. Attach these to complete the top as shown below.

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

Batting: For this table runner, I used cotton batting which is easy to quilt with. Everything was bought from Walmart and is super cheap.

Backing: I used the light print from the center blocks as backing. Again, I forgot to take a picture of the back. Remember to cut the batting and backing 1" extra than the top on all sides.

I used stitch-in-the-ditch for quilting. Once the quilting is done, add binding. I used the darker fabric from the center block for binding.

Fig. 10