DIY Christmas Table Runner

I am so excited for this opportunity to share here at Clark’s Condensed! I love Christmas and had bought fabric a while ago to get started on all the things I want to make for the holidays. I decided to do this fun Christmas table runner which is relatively easy and fun.
Materials:

• 1/2 yd neutral fabric
• 1/8-1/4 yd – contrasting colored fabric (I used 4 different colors)
• Batting
• 1/4 yd fabric for back
• 1/4 yd for binding

To begin, I cut a bunch of 3″ squares from my fabric. I had a few other patterns but when I put them all together, they clashed a little bit so I decided to put the white in between to balance things out.

Starting from the corner, I sewed in block lines. At the top of this corner, there is the white, red and white block which I sewed together as one line (basically working diagonally). Once I had finished those, I pressed the seams open and then began to sew them together, doing my best to make sure that the corners of the squares matched up as much as possible. The end looked like the picture below.

Once it’s all sewn together, cut the edges so that the squares become triangles on the edges. Then decide how much of a border you want and sew it onto the edges. I used the red swirls and cut it 1 1/2″ but you can make the border as thick or as thin as you want. Then you’ll pin your backing and batting to the front piece and use your machine to quilt it. You can do as many lines or designs as you want but you have to remember that you want to keep the lines only as far as 3-4″ apart because if the space is bigger, the batting can move and break up more.

Next you’ll want to attach your binding. I like to make my own because it’s cheaper and I can use colors and designs already in my project. You will just pin it around the edge of your runner.

For the corners, you’ll want to fold the fabric so that it creates a triangle with the binding going away from the runner. Then you pull it back down so that goes down the other edge, so it overlaps a little bit. You can kind of see the triangle to the left in the picture below and then the folded edge is flush with both sides of the corner. Then you do a seam around to attach it to your table runner.

Here is how to do the ends without having to do a ton of extra work. When sewing the binding down, I usually start a ways down from the end piece, usually lower than that blue pin. I sew around the project and then when I get to about the yellow pin, I backstitch and cut my thread. you’ll want to see about where the pieces will meet with enough room and then you’ll sew just the two pieces of binding at that point. Trim off the extra fabric.

Go back and finish sewing there rest of it down so that it is secure.

From there you can either hand stitch or machine sew the binding by folding it over the edge to the other side. On smaller projects I don’t mind hand stitching because I have a little more control and any little mistake isn’t visible.And there you go! It is a fairly easy project that will look perfect for any table or counter when you are hosting parties for the holidays!

Britney blogs over at The Princess & Her Cowboys where she shares crafts, recipes, thoughts and ideas about how to make life just a little bit simpler.