Wonky Stars Table Runner (part 1)

Saturday I felt that I needed a new, fun project.  I played with a couple of ideas and finally settled on a little table runner idea, mostly because it is small and quick.  I remembered to take pics along the way, so I thought I'd put together a tutorial.

Of course, I needed to choose fabrics, so  began by pulling some pretty solids and placed them on the gray background fabric. Although I auditioned more than these and needed only six colors, I decided to work with these eight and eliminate two as I progressed.  In the end the pink and dark green did not make the cut as one is too light and the other too dark.

I decided to use my Accuquilt Studio to cut the 3 1/2 inch squares for the stars.  I cut four of each color setting one aside for the center. Of the other three, I cut two in half (four each of 3 1/2 x 1 3/4) and one into four (four each of 1 3/4 x 1 3/4).  The small squares were easy to work with--I simply drew a diagonal lines and then stitched following that line.  I drew a diagonal line on the rectangles also, but note that it has to be placed in a wonky way to sew.  The best I can say is that I used the starting corner and the center of the gray square to eye the placement of the rectangle.

I made four identical squares for each star.



 

The next step is to trim the corners and press.

Once all the pieces for one star are stitched, it's just a matter of arranging the nine patch.  The top row is stitched, then the second and finally the third.  (Don't look at how kooky the pieces are.  I ended up cutting and sewing a whole new yellow star because I cut something wrong and the trimmed pieces are too small to rip out.)

Then stitch the three rows together.  Easy.

 Really!  It's so easy that I began after lunch and had the little piece loaded on the long-arm before coming in from the studio.

Come back tomorrow for part two of this project post. I'll show the quilting that I did on Sunday afternoon.  See you then!