Quarantine UFO Series #11, Minty Christmas Table Runner

When I first acquired this fabric, I thought I had a pattern I was interested in that included dangling Christmas bulbs. When I finally pulled the fabric out to work on it, I couldn’t find the pattern I thought I had. So… I came up with something else. I am super happy with how it turned out and glad I found this alternative.

But, what to do with the leftovers? I decided to fashion my own hanging bulbs pattern for a table runner. I looked into pinterest a bit but was disappointed there wasn’t really any good ideas in there. I decided I was on my own and got to work.

 

I started with adding some interest to the bulb by putting stripes across them in coordinating fabric. Then, I used the snowball pattern to make them into bulbs. Finally, I added a brown square at the top to help them look like they had a glass top for hanging. 

 

 

Now that the blocks were done, I laid them out on the table to see how I’d like to have them hang. I settled on the staggered pattern and filled the background in with the matching white fabric. The final step was to add a border and get the backing pieced together. I used the last of the fabric leftovers and now it was ready to quilt.

 

 

I did a basic meander on the white and the staggered straight stitch around the border. I added the label and binding and looked back at my finished product. But it was missing something…

 

 

The ribbon holding them up to create the dangling look!!

 

 

I found some simple dark brown ribbon and used a zigzag stitch to attach it to the quilt. I’ve never added “embellishments” to a quilt before, but this one just called for it. And I’m so glad I did!! I love the final product and how it came together.

 

 

On a side note, after finishing this project, I was cleaning my sewing cabinet and found the original pattern I’d intended on doing. I still really like it so I’m keeping it for another project in the future. Until then, I’m just glad I’ve completed another project with my stash.