Project 6 - Country Lanes Table Runner - Finished

I've been off over to the mainland, spending some time with my family and away from my sewing room.  I headed straight back in the day after I got back, worried that I'm getting too far behind schedule.  So here is another one down and new lessons learned.

I consider this one to be a bit of a failure.  To jog your memories, here is the finished top.......

I was unhappy with the fabric combinations.  I spent a lot of time doing mock ups etc and the fabrics should have worked together, but in the end it just looked ..... umm .... hotch potch and messy.

This top is supposed to have 6 mitered borders and I did try, really.  Having spent the best part of an afternoon trying to get the first one to work, I had to admit defeat and ripped off the pointy bits at the end.  I quickly sewed on some butted borders and gave some thought to the quilting.

I used the large floral print for the backing, which gave me the idea to try something I'd read about - quilting from the back.  After ditch stitching, I would quilt around all the flowers on the backing using invisible thread.

The quilt back

It's really hard to see, but here's a close up look at the quilting.

On the plus side it was really quick and easy to do - but quick and easy don't usually bring the best results.  Have a look at the front.........

It looks like a lot of very bad meandering and not much at all like flowers - what a mess!

I finished the runner with black binding which I'm in the process of sewing on.  I did learn quite a bit from making this top -:

1. I need 'hands-on' lessons on mitered borders
2. Quick and Easy doesn't give the best results
3. Mock-ups don't always give a true peek at the finished look

So here is the (almost) finished table-runner - and onto the next project!