Table Runner Experience

Last week I blogged about doing a kit for this Heartfelt Garden table topper.  On Friday I took the kit over to my aunt's house.  I took some PTO in the afternoon (the year end process will do that for you) so we had some 'alone time' to work on it before the rest of the bunch arrived.

Aunt Z was doing the sewing, and I was just organizing and assisting.  I will say this -- while everything you need to do and know is in the pattern, if you don't READ each step in both words and pictures, you can miss something.

For instance, the drawing on the left in the second row (step 5) shows piecing a portion of the next round of the block.  Then step 6 says "add unit made in Step 5 and E1".  That's it.  You have to look at the drawing to see which piece to add on which side.  OK most of us get that, but it could have been explained in just a little bit more detail...

 

My observation is that since it doesn't say sew to left side/right side, there is opportunity to do it wrong and then spend time scratching your head as to why it doesn't look like the drawing.  What with going up and down between machine and ironing surface, it can happen quite easily.  As me how I know...

 

If you followed the cutting and sorting instructions to the letter, you'll know exactly what your E1 unit is, but if you think you're going to skip that step, well, just don't do it!  You might find yourself a little confused since the pieces are not cut in order of size.  C is the smallest, then G, then -- well you get it.

Keep piece size and fabric number handy, it will help!

The pattern tells you to put all your pieces into baggies for ease of finding the right piece.  We tried that but the baggies were slippery.  We tried clipping them together in order but that made opening them a challenge, plus a binder clip damages the baggies. 

Aunt Z had a pile of envelopes on her table that she was getting rid of, and we had the brilliant idea of using them instead.  Brilliant because they could be placed in a small carton or tray and they stood up whether open or closed, which made pulling out the pieces a lot easier!

For this project we found chain piecing better than doing one quadrant at a time.  And we thought that this project is best done for the first time either alone or in a small group so you can concentrate or with everyone who's there working on it at the same time.  By the time the rest of the crew came and added their 2 cents' worth, we pretty much knew what we should be doing.

Not that that guaranteed that we wouldn't make errors!! 

Sorry, no photos of the work in process this time, my phone was on life support by the time we got that far.  We should finish up this Friday and I'll post the proud owner with the finished product.

Here's Miss E ready to go to the homecoming dance... in her newly hemmed gown.  I had to trim the back of the overskirt so she could dance without tripping on it, since street shoes were not allowed n the gym.

Sew on...