Snowbirds can quilt, too!

I happen to be one of the many thousands who migrate every fall and spring. I'm a Canadian snowbird, spending half my life in Nova Scotia and the other half in Florida. While down south I meet every Tuesday for a few hours of quilting, sharing and socializing with a great bunch of women. We have all ages (er,... I do happen to live in a seniors retirement park)within the span of about 60-90 with lots of skills and experiences to share.Last week, Niela showed some of us how to make what she called the "Twenty Minute Runner". I have since found it on line as the "Ten Minute Runner". I tried making a couple, taking more time but learning a lot. I think that anyone who can do this in ten minutes would qualify for the World Bionic Quilt-off!!
So, thirty minutes to make on and more like sixty to write a tutorial which I promised a few friends. This is my first, so here we go~~~

Twenty Minute Table Runner Tutorial

(See the finished runner below.)

(Refer to figure 1)  First, cut a piece of fabric for the front using measurements that are appropriate for the table for which you are making the runner. Here I chose 24” x 6”.

Then decide how wide you wish the borders to be. (Mine was 1.5”) The fabric for the back is cut the same length as the front. The width of this piece is the width of the front plus four times the width of the border plus ½”
Thus the width of my backing was 6+(4x1.5)+0.5 = 12.5”

Sew these two fabrics together along the length twice using a ¼” seam making a tube; see figure 2.

Press the seams open.
Turn the tube right side out. Arrange it so that the borders are equal and press.  See figure 3.

Trim the ends off squarely as in figure 4.

Now fold this in half lengthwise by folding the front together. You will have a long skinny rectangle showing just the back fabric. Sew the two ends using a ¼” seam as in figure 5 below.

Open this so the top is up and turn the pointed ends (that you just created) right side out so that it looks like this figure 6 on the back:

Before pressing this, make sure that the corners form a right angle, using your square as below in Figure 7. Then press.

Stitch the top in whatever design you wish. As there is no batting to shift, you may use a minimum of stitching here. I merely outlined the print part of the top, approximately 1/4 in from the seam lines.

There you have it, the table runner that can be made faster than reading this tutorial!
Good luck with this quick and easy project.  Nice to make a few and have them on hand for Christmas gifts.
Thanks to Niela for sharing this with us.

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