Half a Jelly Roll

While perusing the All People Quilt website, I found a great pattern for a table runner.  You can find it here.  You needed eighteen 2.5 inch strips.  I was lucky to find a half-jelly roll (20 strips) from Lunn Studios and off I went.

I pieced the first runner.  The green polka dot fabric in the center and the border is the only extra fabric you need beyond the strips.  (As always, remember that my piecing is better than reflected in my pictures!)

With lots of fabric left, I figured I should be able to get another runner--and I was right!  I am not as fond of this one as the first one, mostly because I had to cut the proper length strips from what was left, not necessarily for how I wanted each block to look, as I had in the first one.  

And then, what do you do with what's still left of the strips?  Mug rugs, of course!  I stripped five pieces together and machine quilted them with a flame-like design.  One of the rejected strips was used as the binding!

Still a bit left, so I pieced six of them together for another mug rug, again using a rejected strip as the binding.  As you can see from each of these, the quilting distorted the straightness of the seams.  The pieces are square/rectangular because I trimmed them after quilting and before binding.  I am a hand quilter, but you know what?  I am so thrilled with making mug rugs that I am using them as a chance for creativity and joyful abandon!  Will I try to do better on the next ones?  You bet.  But not at the expense of enjoying the process.

And I got pretty darn close to achieving my goal--nothing of the 2.5 inch strips left.  Most are pieces under 2 inches and the longest one is 17 inches.  I think I did pretty good--especially when I started out to make one runner! 

Enjoy the start to the work week!

Blissful hugs,
Sharon

P.S.  I am listening to The King's Deception by Steve Berry.