The second project on Jaybird Quilt's Journey to Nebula was the Lucky Charm Pillow pattern. My take on this project was a table runner using one of my all time favorite fabric lines French General, Joyeux Noel.
This fabric line worked really great because the prints were non directional, for the most part, snowflakes and holly leaves.. it made cutting very easy. You can use a directional print, but you have to be more careful in cutting to ensure your print matches when sewing together.. just fyi....
A few years ago I made a quilt for my SIL in these beautiful shades of red, taupe, and cream. And because, these colors were so classic Christmas, I made myself a Christmas tree skirt as well.
Going into this project I had the idea to make a table runner for my coffee table that is usually in eye sight of the Christmas Tree.
The pattern called for a charm pack in order to get a variety of colors. Since I was working with the scraps I had from two prior projects, I started cutting my scraps into 5 inch squares. And this was mistake number one.
Always read the pattern before you start. Had I followed my own advise, I would have read the pattern before I cut my scraps in to 5" pieces. The pattern clearly states that 5" will be slightly shorter than the width needed. You see, the pattern uses the Hex and More Ruler to cut half hexagon shapes. To be clear, the pattern was written for charm packs and it instructs how to align the ruler to overcome this fabric shortfall.
The half hexagon shape involves diagonal cuts that you would need to align during sewing. The 5" length is not enough to make the notch needed as a guide to align your pieces when sewing.
Had I read the pattern before cutting, and remeasured, I would have cut my scraps to 5.25" long instead of 5". Its unfortunate because I was working with scraps that had enough material to cut the extended length. Instead, my half hexies were left without the guiding notch on the bottom.
Trial and Error. This made sewing the initial hexies a tad frustrating. Again, no fault of the pattern, but user error. In the beginning it took a few wrong pieces sewn incorrectly to figure out the correct placement and sewing line. If the notches were done properly the guessing would have been eliminated. Eventually, I was able to eyeball my sewing line so that the hexies were sewn evenly. (for the most part).
Keep it straight. The picture above is the placement before I started sewing. In order to avoid Y-seams, you sew the half hexies in rows. It is important to take your time and number or organize the pieces you pick up to sew. It is so easy to get the hexies out of order which with then not form the hexagon shape. So take it slow and be organized.
I was fairly pleased with how well the hexies aligned with one row after another.
Simple straight line quilting was all that was needed to complete the runner. Overall, it turned out really cute with the simple quilting design of lines crossing the hexies. This pattern is so flexible, and sews fairly quickly even though there are a lot of pieces.
I am looking forward to decorating for Christmas this year! And in 2020, that means something...
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