Happy Friday, I hope you have a great weekend planned. We have Monday off for Victoria Day and an extra day to relax is never a bad thing!

Today I’m sharing a quilty something. I’m so excited that my foray into quilting is progressing along nicely. I’m happy to actually have made something substantial – with straight line quilting and a binding and everything! I know that may not seem that amazing to all of you quilters out there – but to me it’s one step closer to actually making a real live actual quilt – the kind you can cozy up with.

I have been stalking Blueberry Patch Cathy’s Wonky Star Table Runner tutorial ever since I saw Cynthia Frenette’s version of it last year. So my plan was to make one for my mom this year some time and Mother’s Day seemed like the best option. I took her out to the local Hobby Lobby for some fabric selecting when we were visiting her in December for Christmas. She loved these green, yellow and red (mostly) batiks and they match with her kitchen colours really well. The natural background she picked is perfect for this table runner. It was pretty fun since she had no idea what I was going to make from it!

I don’t usually work with batiks, but I like how they tend to look “one colour” and more quilty-modern with a solid background I think? The wonky stars are really simple to put together. There’s one in the centre of the 6×6 fabric tray as well. Once I had all the pieces sewn my youngest even had fun helping arrange them. She loves green so maybe that is why they are mostly in the centre area?!

This table runner was made starting with 4.5″ squares. Cathy made hers with 4″ squares – which in hindsight may have been easier. There is not a lot of room for a “full star” block when you use only 3 squares across. I found arranging the “split” star pieces had to be done carefully so the colours still balanced. The quilting was fun too – though I wish I had some Aurafil or other “better” thread to work with. The regular Gütermann I use just doesn’t have the same look. The whole thing is self bound. I made the backing bigger and folded it over to the front and machine-stitched it. It works well, but the quilting has to stop exactly on the edges of the runner or it will show on top of the binding.

There’s a super-cute zakka label on the back. I found them at the Creativ Festival! I will have a review of it (and my stash!) coming next week, I think. I just washed up all of my new fabrics yesterday – doesn’t a wash-tub full of new fabric just make you super-happy?! And then folding it all up into little mini-bolts for my shelf is my favorite. I even cut up some of them yesterday for new Bohemian Babydoll dresses for the kids. Seriously can’t say enough good about this dress/top pattern – it is really quick (with no closures to sew!) and my girls love it. I’ve got fabric for 4 of them on my cutting table right now.

Do you quilt? What do you think of batiks? I’m curious, since it seems everyone generally chooses modern or traditional fabric and then there are batiks…? Since I’m not quilting a lot yet I’m not sure how that works.