It is done.

This summer I am ready to dress up a corner of my home with this paper pieced, water melon motif table runner. Not too bad, right? I’ll keep this a short post so you can just enjoy the pictures.

I am thrilled with how the runner looks, and also ecstatic that this long hoarded pattern/fabric bundle finally got made. No additional fabric or notions were purchased to complete the table runner.

I’ve learned some things:

• Never say in print that a project will be done in a couple of days, as I said in my previous post. This runner took more time than I assumed.
• A printed pattern (independent company or the large corporate pattern companies) not proofed repeatedly to get it perfect, should be a legal offense. But I don’t want to complain – mistakes happen. And the paying customer pays for it.
• Quilting requires piecing little pieces of fabric. The issue with this is just how small the pieces are. This project kept me piecing together little bits of cloth for a long time. It just went on and on and on. And this was just a table runner. I could only imagine what a large quilt would entail. No wonder the prize winning quilts earn $10,000 or more at Houston’s Quilt Festival.

• Someone should have told me that when quilting the layers down, I should start with the center, then work my way to the edges, smoothing out the backing as I go. Heh, no worries; even though the back has major slack. Actually, so does the front. I should have asked my local quilting shop to quilt the layers together and add binding. Not sure if they accept small projects.

• I used the Martelli Notions mitering tool to miter the binding corners. It is easy to do without the tool, but in a buying frenzy I had bought it – so why not use it? It’s fun to use, actually. I wrote a post about it a three years ago, and you can read it here.
• The batting is a thin cotton batting. If it shrinks in laundering, the runner will have that crinkly “much loved” look. If you know what I mean.

Will I piece together another project similar to this? Maybe. The paper piecing is fun. I’ve done it before on very small projects, such as potholders. I’ll explore another quilting technique when I want to take a break from sewing clothes. Maybe sewing together hexagons by hand – “hexies” as they are called. I hear that is called traditional English paper piecing.

Love to all of you, my sewing buddies

Samina