Christmas Quiltalong Headstart

Today is a non-working day for me so I'm having some quilting fun! Quiltsue had invited me over for coffee so I braved the wind and the rain and headed over to her place. She made me a delicious cup of coffee and we sat down to chat about all things quilty. She showed me the Christmas quilts she's been quilting on her clever machine. They are sooo beautiful! Of couse we had a natter about her Christmas Quiltalong and that got me in the festive mood.

When I got home I pulled my Christmas fabrics box out from the cupboard and rooted through to see if I have enough fabric for a table runner I've been planning. I didn't but never mind. I now have an excuse to visit Embsay on Saturday after my hubby has been shopping for new slippers in Skipton market.

I did find a project I made a while ago for a class I taught. It was a table mat and I'd also cut out the fabric to make another 3 mats and stored it all in a zippy bag. I can't believe I was so organised! Well I decided this little stash could be adapted to make another table runner and got going straight away. First I sewed pairs of 1½” strips of fabric:

Then I pressed before cutting  them into 1½” sections:

and joined pairs taking care to 'nestle' the seams:

I also tried this trick for the first time - it makes a huge difference when pressing these units flat. You open the centre to press the seams in opposite direction.

Join 4 of these to make chequerboard strips

It seems ages since I did some straightforward piecing and it was so satisfying! Now I'm ready to use these:

with these fabrics:

I wonder if you can work out what it will look like?

Don't forget to visit Quiltsue and join in the Christmas Quiltalong on Saturday. It's sure to be a lot of fun!