Tropical Table Runner

Finished Table Runner and Machine Binding Maiden Voyage

I finished up my sister-in-law's birthday present, and I'm really happy with how it turned out! She loves all things tropical, and I hope I've captured that here. I used Amy's easy table runner tutorial, which is, as the name implies, very easy.

As I mentioned when I bought the fabrics, I'm not a huge batik person. But I really love the backing fabric I chose. I might even like the back more than I like the front!

My strips are (somewhat) randomly sized: I used 1.5", 2", and 2.5" strips and just cut a few of each size out of each fabric. This is a quilt-as-you-go project, so the lines on the back of the runner aren't evenly spaced (they could be though, if you chose to use strips of the same size). I added some additional quilting, just eyeballing it every inch or so. So some strips on the front ended up with two or three quilting lines, and some only one. You can see how it looks on the back too.

Always remember to photograph quilting projects in their natural habitat.

This was also my first attempt at machine binding. It was nice to try that on a smaller quilt to see how I liked it. However, it didn't go perfectly:

Some puckering! Some unevenness! Oh my!

So here's what I learned about machine binding (I used Amy's tutorial for that too).

1. I HATE invisible thread. I didn't know where the stitching would end up on the backside, so I got some invisible thread to use in the bobbin. That... didn't work. At all. I couldn't even get the bobbin to wind. I don't know if it was the kind of thread I got, or my old machine, or just something I did wrong, but it was a disaster. It just kept breaking when I tried to wind it. So I cut my losses and decided to just use white thread. It does show--quite a bit--but I decided to just consider it "bonus quilting."

Has anyone had any success with invisible thread, or is it just not worth the hassle?

2. The binding ends up being very uneven (skinny on the back and wide on the front). This could be solved by not pulling it so tightly around from the back, and in the future, I would probably do that, because I'd like just a little more binding on the back than I ended up with. The nice thing about the unevenness is that I knew I wasn't going to have stitches showing up in my binding on the backside. The downside then, is that the stitching on the back is pretty far away from the binding on the back. (You can see that in close-up of the back, above.)

3. I will probably continue to hand bind my more meaningful quilts (baby quilts, wedding quilts, etc.) I just like the look better. However, this is a great technique to have in my back pocket, and I'd never hesitate to use it for a wall hanging, table runner, or other small project. It's even good to have on hand if I'm ever short on time for a "meaningful" quilt-- this is certainly MUCH faster than hand binding!

So, a cute birthday gift for my sister-in-law and a good learning experience with a new technique for me. I hope she likes it!

Linked up at Canoe Ridge Sew Modern Monday and Plum & June's Get Acquainted Link Up.

Jam Session

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon (too gorgeous to be inside, I regret to say! But so it goes.) making this:

Heavenly!

...into this:

One batch strawberry, one batch triple berry.

You really haven't lived until you've undertaken a canning project in an apartment kitchen.

The blood of many berries was shed.

Thankfully, I had great help:

This thing really is great though. If you are ever making jam or eat a lot of strawberries, it is well worth the money. There are cheaper ones out there, and I used to have one before my mom got me this one, and they do not work. This one, however, does. It takes out only the minimum of the actual fruit, it's easy to dispose of the top once you cut it out, and in short, it's just a great tool. I happened to see that it's featured in Cook's Illustrated this month too, and they say it's great for tomatoes as well. But I hate tomatoes, so I wouldn't know. :)

Now Playing


We're always looking for ways to freshen up our playlists, right? I've decided to feature a few songs from time to time, just for fun.* :) I was feeling pretty uptempo today.

1. Origins-- Tennis
2. MoneyGrabber-- Fitz and the Tantrums
3. New in Town-- Little Boots

*Note: I am really not a lyrics person, and enjoy songs even without knowing what they're saying (sometimes more when I don't!) As a result, some of these may have questionable thematic content. Listen at your own risk.

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