Summer Lee Quilts: July 2018

It's Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hog!!! Have you all been enjoying yourselves? I sure hope so!

I've got a tutorial for you today for an easy, but eye-catching, runner for your table or as gift for your favorite person. <3

This runner is made to fit my 8ft table, measuring 96.5" x 16.5", but it could easily be shorted or made longer. The finished block size is 8", so take your desire length and divide it by 8, then multiply that number by 2 to see how many total blocks you need. :)

For my runner, I chose Return To Winters Lane by Kate & Birdie. It's a beautiful and simple line that we'll be able to use all winter, because it's not overly "Christmasy"
Supplies

1 Jelly Roll (or 30 2.5" strips of various colors/prints)
1.5 yards for backing
batting (honestly, I used the leftover scraps from recent quilts)
Stitch ripper

Instructions

NOTE: I'm going to write out directions for those of you who aren't video folks, but I'm going to have a video below with so you can see the steps. Also, all seam allowances are 1/4". :)

1. Open up that jelly roll and delight in all the feels and smells of newly opened fabric...breathe deep, this is therapeutic after all. <3 Then, separate your strips into colorways (a pile for each color represented). This is so you can make sure you're getting a good mix in your blocks. Also, pick out six strips for your binding and set them aside.

2. Sew 4 strips together (make sure you mix up the colors!), then fold your strip set in half lengthwise (right sides together) and sew the those strips together to create a long tube. (Don't press any seams yet.) Make 6 tubes.

3. Move your tubes to the cutting table. Lay one tube out, nice and flat, and feel where the seam that's on the top lines up with the seam on the bottom (this is in the video if you can't picture that). Cut off the selvage to even up on side of the tube.

4. Now cut (16) 2.5" "rings" from your tube. You can repeat this process for all your tubes, but make sure you keep the rings from each tube together, making sure to not mix them up.

5. It's the fun part! Wait, I think these are all fun parts, but now's the time you get to break out your stitch ripper for good instead of evil. You're going to take 4 "rings" at a time to make a block. Decide which fabric on your ring you'd like to make the diagonal through the block and rotate the ring so that that fabric is at the top when you hold it up. We'll call this fabric "A" from now on. Rip the stitches out along the top seam of A, open your ring, and lay it front of you with A at the top.

6. For the next ring, put A at the top, but then rotate the ring down one time. A will now be at the bottom, facing you. Rip the stitches along the top seam again, and lay this ring beside the first so you can see that A is diagonal to the first strip.

7. For the 3rd ring, put A at the top and rotate twice, so now A is on the bottom but facing away from you. Rip those precious stitches out across the top again, open it up, and set it with the others. You should see the diagonal now continuing. If you accidentally rip the wrong seam, simply stitch it back up and try again. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have to do that. ;)

8. For the last ring of the block, put A at the top and rotate 3 times, so now it's at the top but facing away from you. Take those stitches out across the top, like you've done before and open it up.

9. Now it's time to press those seams! I press all the seams on each strip the same direction, but I alternate the direction of each strip so that they are going opposite directions. This lets them nest and gives us the pretty corners we all dream about at night. Or is that just me?

10. To complete your first block, just sew those 4 pretty strips together and press it open.

11. Repeat steps 5-10 to complete a total of 24 blocks (or however many you need if you're changing it up).

12. It's time to lay it out! The layout is 2 blocks by 12. Watch A on each block and rotate each block so the corners of A are lined up with the corners of the A fabrics beside it and above it. The goal is to create diamond shapes throughout the runner.

13. Once you're happy with the layout, it's time to piece them all together into one beautiful top!

Here's the video tutorial up until here:

Because life happens, I didn't video the runner top, but here it is! It required 3 pictures to get all 8 ft of it shown. Ha!

Now you can baste, quilt, and bind (with the 6 strips you put aside earlier) with your preferred methods!

To quilt, I did a continuous curves free-motion pattern. I just love it for patterns with lots of little squares. <3 I did a FB live on how I do continuous curves if you'd like to see it.

I'd love love love to see your runner if you use this pattern! You can share it with me on Instagram, using the hashtag #summerleequilts or by following and tagging me @summerleequilts. I'm also on Facebook, if you want to come hang out with me when I do my weekly livestreams!

Now, I hope you'll take a few minutes to go visit Kathy @ Kathy's Kwilts and More! I'm posting the schedule below so you can catch up on any posts you've missed. <3

Thank you so much for stopping by today and happy quilting!