Quilt As You Go Table Runner

In my last post, I shared a photo of my fabrics that I'm using for my "current" project. Like most any other crafter, I have MULTIPLE projects going at once! A good portion of that project has been pieced but, I've put the brakes on it for now.

Above is my Sasha. Thinking she is helping me. She's not. :o) I was trying to piece my strips together for the runner I've just finished. It's a super easy pattern and I may make it again, although in different fabrics of course.

Here are some of my strips for my table runner. I chose this pack from several other pre-cut sets at my local Wal-Mart. I actually have 2 Wal-Marts in my town and shopping at both has made me realize they don't carry exactly the same items for everything. So I can get a good variation by shopping at both.

The pattern for this table runner is actually inspired by the Quilt As You Go Placemats from The Midnight Quilt Show.

(BTW, I LOVE her show! She creates some fantastic quilts and she's funny too!)
I was very indecisive with my color placement. In hers, she did the light in the middle and darker on the ends. I did the same except my middle lighter colors are the same fabric.
Below is my piecing the strips onto the batting and backing.

As you can see, this quilt was super easy to piece the strips onto the backing and batting. This is actually my first Quilt As You Go creation and I loved it!

Once you have all the strips attached to the quilt sandwich, you can see on the reverse the initial stitching. I usually just use a cream or muslin backing for many of my projects. Sometimes, I do use a printed fabric that matches the front.

For the actual quilting, I just did some stitch-in-the-ditch around the center shapes and then did some following about half an inch away. I also did stitch along the joining of each strip.

For the binding, I put aside the darkest fabric of the strip pack, which also happened to be the fabric with all of the colors of the palette in it.

Here's my finish table runner! It's been some time since I pieced and quilted and even put on binding. I'm a little rusty but not bad at all!

Thanks for reading!

My Thread Bits: In The Beginning...

We all remember our first time trying a new craft. The excitement, the fun.. the frustration.. the mistakes..Ahh. We live and we learn, right? I sure did! Before YouTube taught us "everything", I had to rely on books and a few TV programs to teach me.

I'll admit, I really thought I knew what I was doing in the beginning. I seen all the pretty fabrics and all the pretty quilt blocks and I was hooked! At the time, I was really into blocks like pointy Stars. Surprisingly, having never sewn before and never been taught, I picked up on making those points "pointy" pretty quickly.
Matching fabric on the other hand.. well I'll let my first quilt speak for itself.

The above is my first attempt at piecing. Such busy prints! The tones in the different blues did not match well at all! The fabric for the background of the squares is entirely too busy with print and color to truly accentuate the entire piece.

A book that really, truly helped me was titled The Quilter's Quick Reference Guide (That Patchwork Place) by Candace Eisner Strick. It covers everything from color and fabric, to piecing and even applique, and finally putting it all together and quilting it. It's Copyright 2004, but it's still so very much useful today.



I had a website from around 2006 through 2013. It was Pattern Patch Quilts. I had a handful of quilt patterns that I designed. Alas, all of them have been lost. So I've decided to start new! My Thread Bits will mostly be me sharing what I sew and/or quilt.

So, to tease the crafter in you, here's a peek at my palette for my current project!

There's likely going to be a fabric or two added to this palette. The above is only the center design.

I'm so glad you stopped by to read my post and I hope you'll come back as I add more photos of my sewing projects!

XOXOXOXO