Trick or Treat Table Runner
Posted by alpinefabrics on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
Course Instructor: Rebecca Woods
of Charley, Dee, & Me Designs
Are you ready for Halloween? Here’s a fun and easy way to get your table looking festive using Riley Blake’s adorable new Trick or Treat line. Have fun, make it your own, and please feel free to visit me anytime at www.charleydeeandme.blogspot.com!
Course Supplies:
Pack of precut 5 inch squares (or ¾ yard total assorted fabrics)
¼ yard white fabric for stop border
¼ yard stripe fabric for outer border
¼ yard orange fabric for binding
½ yard fabric for back
Batting
Course Instructions:
Play with your fabric! Decide which fabrics you like next to each other and which you don’t. I divided my 5 inch squares into two groups: blacks and brights. I chose not to use the white squares.
Make Quarter-square triangles. Choose one black and one bright square. With wrong sides together, draw a pencil line from corner to corner on the back of one square.
Sew ¼ inch on either side of the line.
Cut along the pencil line.
You should have two identical half-square triangles. Press seam toward the black fabric. Repeat with another set of one black and one bright square. Now you should have four half-square triangles, each one half-black and half-bright.
Take one half-square triangle from each pair and put them right sides together. Seams should nest each other.
Draw a pencil line corner to corner on the diagonal opposite the seams. Sew ¼ inch on either side of the line.
Cut along the pencil line. You should have two identical quarter-square triangles.
Press. Repeat with the other set of half-square triangles. Continue this process until you have 13 quarter-square triangle blocks. Square them up to 4 inches.
Choose a design. Choose 14 squares to go in between the quarter-square triangle blocks. I chose to put black fabrics in the middle row and bright fabrics along the outside. Squares will need to be cut down to 4 inches by 4 inches. Play around with your blocks and have fun. Changing the design just a little bit can give you a completely different look for your runner. Do whatever you like.
Sew blocks together. Sew blocks and rows using ¼ inch seams.
Make your borders. Cut 1 inch strips from your ¼ yard of white fabric to create your stop border. Sew border on opposite sides first. Cut 2 ¼ inch strips of stripe fabric to create your outer border. Sew borders on ends first and then sides. Miter corners.
Bind and Quilt. I chose to make piping for my binding. I used 1 ½ inch wide strips sewn onto cording. Ric-rac would also look very cute. Again, do whatever you like. Feel free to get creative with your quilting, too. You could quilt different designs on the blocks and borders or keep it consistent throughout. Enjoy your spooky table runner!
Fabric Pumpkins
I’m sure many of you saw these funky fabric pumpkins going around “blogland” last Halloween. I decided to make a couple of my own with some extra fabric I had leftover. You will need:
1 rectangle of fabric, twice as long as it is wide (I used rectangles sized 9” by 18” and 7” by 14”)
2 yards of Riley Blake’s elastic black lace
Sew five strips of elastic lace widthwise onto your rectangle of fabric. Try to make them evenly spaced, but it doesn’t have to be exact.
When you’re all done, fold your rectangle in half (hamburger style) with right side together and machine sew ¼ inch along the width edge. Then, using embroidery thread and a wide basting stitch, sew up the bottom. Pull threads and cinch up as tight as you can. Turn inside out.
Fill pumpkin with batting scraps, pellet beads, or poly-fill. When you’re done stuffing, sew the top closed much like you would a yo-yo, turning under ¼ inch and cinching closed at the end.
To finish off the thread, put the needle straight down through the center of the pumpkin and tie a tight know at the bottom. You’re done! Enjoy your pumpkins!
September 21st, 2012 at 9:57 p.m.
January 07th, 2013 at 7:17 a.m.