Quilted Table Runner

I went on a little road trip to Lancaster, PA last Saturday to visit my mom and her sewing friends
at their weekend getaway.

I rented a car and hit the road. I was happy to get out of the city and connect with nature since we don't get to see many changing leaves here (check out the side view mirror in the picture above).  The bed and breakfast shares land with an Amish farm and the landscape of rolling hills was beautiful.  My mom and her friends had completely taken over the main floor of the B&B with their sewing machines, fabric and other materials to make quilts and sewing projects. 

They let me join in and make something with donation upholstery samples, so I decided on a table runner.  First, I laid out all the squares of fabric and paired the coordinating colors together - putting one light and one dark together.  I placed them on top of each other (right sides together) then using a ruler and a pencil, I drew a diagonal line on both sides of the ruler and then sewed on top of those lines. 

Then I cut each square in half diagonally, dividing it into 2 triangles between those two lines I just sewed.

Once complete, I pressed the seam allowances towards the darker triangles.

Then using the Omnigrip 6 inch square ruler, I trimmed them all down to a perfect size. 

Half-square triangle blocks like this can be pieced in a number of different configurations, including zigzag, diamonds, hourglass, simple rows of triangles but I decided on pinwheels.  I arranged 12 half square triangles units into 3 pinwheel blocks.  

Using a 1/4" seam allowance, I sewed the rows together, matching edges and midpoints carefully. Then I pressed the new seam allowance either direction to create a flatter block (but this was hard to do with such thick fabric) and joined them, making one row of three blocks.

I added a 1 1/2 inch border around the entire piece and then started on the backing.  I layed out the backing fabric, batting, then the quilt top on a clean, smooth surface.  Since my project is small, I used a table but you may need to use the floor for a larger project.  You really should tape down the backing of the quilt to keep it secure, but we chose not to for this.

Then I placed my quilt on the batting, spreading out to smooth any wrinkles.  I cut the batting to 2 inches from the quilt, being careful not to cut the backing fabric. 

Once the fabric was arranged the way I wanted it, I used curved safety pins to secure all three layers.

Once I placed all of my pins, I used scissors to trim through all layers about two inches from the edge of the quilt top.  Then I quilted straight through all three layers using my mom's fancy machine.

I am really happy with the finished project and I think it's happy on my table with two kabocha squash sitting on top of it. :)

Happy Halloween!