Project 6 - Carrie's Country Lanes Table Runner

For the last 2 days I've been working on & off on this project.  A table runner!  I don't actually have one of these and it makes a change from a quilt.  This is what it's supposed to look like - Carrie Hargrave's version

I like these fabrics, but also found them confusing in that I didn't realise for a while that there is a tan and a cream fabric in there - in the photo they look the same, making it more difficult to figure out the piecing in the block.

I sorted it out when I did the mock-up.  A mock-up is recommended for this one and I'm glad I did one (or two or three).  You can see my mock-ups in an earlier post but I was never happy with the results.

I ended up scratching most of the fabrics I'd chosen - sticking to the main fabric, cause I wanted to use it, but having all sorts of trouble finding a harmonious mix within my limited stash.

This is what I ended up with - I had some white quilter's muslin I picked up on sale to use as backing, which mixed ok with the main fabric.  I settled on this combo as I felt it had a fresh look to it.

This project was fairly straight forward and didn't cause me any real hassles, until the end.  It uses strip sets, solid blocks and 4 patch blocks.  I'm gaining confidence, and happier with my seam butting, although there are still a few which don't work out perfectly.  I don't really understand why, as the good ones were done in exactly the same way as the bad ones - everything was meticulously cut, measured, starched, measured again, sewn & trimmed.  I suppose as fabric is fluid there is going to be some shifting no matter how careful you are.  Anyway - here it is, almost finished...........

I thought I'd finished, but there is a little bit left - trimming those ends!

I must admit I didn't quite understand the instructions until I'd read them over a couple of times.  Even then I wasn't sure - but this time I have some left over fabrics, so I rolled the rotary cutter over them with crossed fingers.  Here is the result.........

Now, compare the right side to the left side.......hmmmm what is going on here?

The end squares are supposed to be trimmed to include a 1/4 seam.  I did this on both sides, but one side has 1/4 notches and the other doesn't.  Uh Oh.??

Well I left it there - I'll wait till I get to putting on the mitered border to see if I need to re-do the ends. 

Speaking of borders - I am kinda annoyed at having to shelve these projects before adding borders.  I worry about not having enough fabric, or not liking the result and it being too late to get any more material.  Harriet does insist though, not to add borders until all the projects are finished. 

I'm not looking forward to doing a dozen borders in a row - then of course having to back, batt, quilt and bind them all.  Eek!

I wanted to get an idea of what this would look like once the border was on, so I laid it on top of the fabric - check it out.

Quite flowery isn't it.

The floral, red, white & brown fabrics came from Spotlight - the black was from Eddy's (I think)