Necessity 1

Necessity is the mother of invention.  Tonight is on "making-do" and the next post will be a Necessity tutorial of a different nature.

While at a quilt shop, I found this beautiful horse fabric.  It was a one yard cut and I wasn't sure what I would do with it--but I loved it and bought it.  Before leaving the store, I remembered the pattern for "Easy Striped Table Runner" by The Quilt Company (www.thequiltcompany.com).  The shop had it, I bought it and away I went.

The fabric was washed and the fun began.  I decided what I wanted in the main parts of the runner and calculated that it would be close on fabric to make the runner.  (The pattern calls for 1.5 yards--remember I had only a yard.)

Here's the fabric.  I definitely wanted some of those mountains in the center.

I cut the long strips for the two sides and started cutting the 60 degree triangles from the leftover part.  Oops, I was going to be one triangle short.  I had laid the runner out on the floor (where Lynnie promptly twirled on it) and knew it was going to be really pretty.  So, knowing the shop had no more of this fabric, I went on a search.  Called all the LQSs--no luck.  I did find some on-line and was one click away from ordering.  But something came up and off I went.  When I came back to the fabric, I was gobsmacked...why not piece together the last triangle?  I had enough fabric to do that!

Here are the last two triangles I cut.  (The bottoms are overlapping to keep the picture a reasonable size.)

Bet you didn't guess which one was pieced, did you?  Here's a clue--from the back.  From the front you would have to actually feel for the extra fabric underneath the seam to know it is there.

Here is the runner top completed.  I just love it!  The moral of this story?  Buy more fabric--or be prepared to "make do".  It should be noted that the pattern says to cut the two center strips, then cut the triangles from the ends of those strips.  Then the pattern matches at the miters--my hodge-podge effect is entirely my doing--the pattern is very precise on what to do--I just didn't have enough fabric to follow the directions.)

Here's a detail with the triangle that was pieced together.  No break in design.

And this is all the fabric I had left over.  If you buy what the pattern calls for in yardage, this is a wonderfully easy, striking runner to make.  So do what I say, not what I did! 

The Jinny Beyer border stripes would be fabulous in this runner.  Give it a look-see--I will make this again--but with more fabric to start with!

That's it for tonight.  Are you all remembering how special you are?  Pay that forward tomorrow--tell someone else how special they are.  Let's start Monday off on a happy note!

Blissful hugs to all,
Sharon