Quilted Table Runner Tutorial

One of my favorite blogs lately has been Vanessa's at V and Co..  She's a super funny, down-to-earth, ridiculously creative gal who's always posting the cutest crafty projects.

Last week, Amy, from Diary of a Quilter, did a guest blog about a great way to make a quilt-as-you-go table runner.  Although I've read about the method in several places, I hadn't tried it before.  Since my hubby was in class tonight and the pups were absolutely exhausted from all of yesterday's Easter company, I cut some fabric strips, got a piece of scrap-batting and some backing, and took off!  And here's the result!!

Can I please say, that not only does Amy do a GREAT job with her tutorial and includes lots of pictures for us visual learners, but this sewing method is super easy and freakin' fast!!!!

The entire runner, including binding, was finished in under an hour and a half.  Now, my hubby would tell you that I tend to exaggerate a little bit -- he jokes that when he thinks I'm embellishing, he usually multiples or divides that number by 3 to get the real number.  I swear to you, though ... from the time I started cutting out my strips, to the time I finished sewing on the binding (with my machine, of course), it was exactly 1 hour and 23 minutes. WOW.

For those people **cough**  **cough** like me, **cough** that love to give hand-made gifts, but don't usually start them until the very last minute and wind up staying up until dawn trying to finish, this method will be a lifesaver.

For my runner, I chose to use some of Moda's Eva by Basic Grey left over from my Christmas Amy Butler Birdie Slings with a cream print background.  The colored prints are 2" wide, finished, while the cream print is 1" wide, finished.  While I was going for a more structured look for this particular runner, I really like Amy's suggestion of using a variety of different prints in different widths.  I plan on trying this method with my next runner.  If you're interested, this runner is now listed for sale in my etsy shop.

Thank you to Amy and Vanessa for your inspiration!!