The Fourth is approaching rapidly. So, we need a simple, quick, and easy project to dress up a table or counter top on which you might present some tasty holiday fare or stacks of flatware and plates your guests will use to hold some tasty edibles.

Supplies:

4 – ten inch squares of coordinating fabric (such as the four fabrics shown above)
batting
backing
binding

Instructions:

1. Stack the fabric squares on  top of each other. If you want your table runner to be straight, carefully align the squares.

2. Using your ruler and rotary cutter, make a diagonal cut slightly off center so that the resulting fabric pieces are not the same size.  This will give your runner a ‘wonky’ unique look.

3. Take the top piece from the right pile and place it at the bottom of the right pile (this is shown in the picture above).  You can take the top piece from the left pile and place it at the bottom of the left pile and get the same results.

4. Sew, with right-sides together, the top fabric pieces from each of your stacks. Each time you do this you will create a rectangular block 9 1/2” by 10”.

5. Lay out the ‘new’ blocks in a row and arrange so no ‘joints’ between the blocks will be made up of the same original fabric square. Sew the ‘new’ blocks together with the 10” long edges right-sides together.

6. Press your assembled runner top.

7. Add some batting, backing and quilt as desired. See below for one quilting method.

8.  I stitched in the ditch.

9. Bind the table runner using your favorite method.
10. The binding technique I used can be found in the December 13, 2011 Mug Rug Blog.