Christmas table runner

 These are  two of my favorite table runners for Christmas. I am a big believer in more is better. Yep. I am a fabric collector. I have a bin of Christmas fabrics collected over many years and wanted to use them.
You might notice these "table runners" are on the sofa. There's a reason for that. My dining room table is becoming an archeological dig at the moment, piles of life stuff, getting taller and taller, in anticipation of someone in the future using it as a tool to understand a 21st century homeowner. They are a mess.

To make these the basic design is from the tutorial on Halloween table runners. See it here Click here to see

I replaced several of the strip sets with a solid to better show off the word. There are a few appliqued stars done quickly with fusible web and a blanket stitch.

 To make the letters, I suggest going to the site DaFont   http://www.dafont.com/
They have many options downloadable for free. You look through them, choose some to download to your computer, create a new document for your chosen word (s) and try out the new font. I usually increase the letter size until it's the size for my quilt and print it out. Now I can audition it on the real quilt to make sure it has the look I want.

There are options for putting the letters on fabric. I tried two. One was to reverse the letters, draw them on paper side of fusible web, fuse to fabric and cut out individually. The other was to use Saral paper, which is like chalky carbon paper, then trace the word onto already fused rectangle of fabric. Layer the fused fabric right side up, the Saral chalk side down, the pattern right side up, trace leaving the outline of the letter showing on your fabric. Cut out and arrange on the quilt.



I used gold metallic thread, and I love YLI for durability and sparkle, and a programmed stitch on my home machine to do some sprigs of hanging branches, and some ribbons for fun. Practice on a sample first. I did simple straight line quilting for speed, the programmed stitches, a buttonhole around letters all in the quilting.
I used my quick-as-a-bunny binding, see tutorial Here.

Well, that's it for today. In the new year I am changing the Monday discussions from Overcoming Creativity Roadblocks, to hints on how to be more creative in your daily life. These are my own personal prompts and hints, so I hope you join the discussions and we can all learn from each other.
It's snowy here in MD. I had to give up the morning walks-with-poodle because of the slush factor with my sneakers. I feel like I have a free day to just play in the studio, which still needs straightening up before I can begin the exciting Christmas tote I'll share later. I have full spectrum bulbs in the studio, so it's lit up like an airport runway, and very cheerful on a gray day. Hope you are being cozy and sewing where ever you are!

LeeAnna