Dutch Tulips

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I love the flexibility in quilting and that once you master a particular skill or learn a square, you can do a great many things with the completed block. I had my eye on this pattern and the linear way the flowers are posed instantly made me think of a table runner. 

Table runners are great quilting projects to stick in between larger projects because they are quick and easy to finish. The one I've made could have been completed in a weekend, though I worked on it a bit here and there over the course of a week. 

I took the basic flower block and created eight and added some sashing and solid square spacer blocks to create my table runner. Though my runner is two flowers by four flowers, you could make it three by five to make a larger runner (and I plan to next time!). 

The pattern was very easy to follow, as all of "it's sew Emma" patterns are. They are written in "everyday" language and the measurements are not fussy.

I used fabric scraps for this pattern and while I LOVE scrappy designs, the muslin that I used for the piecing was flimsy and did not hold its shape well. The color is nice and rustic, almost like a linen or light burlap, but sewing with it was the pits. 

 

At this point, I laid my flowers out and added in the spacers. It didn't quite feel ready to piece and I felt that something was still missing...

I added some solid square blocks here and there and continued the solid sashing  as a border. It spaced the flowers out from each other and broke up all of the linen-colored fabric solids. 

I basted this the way you would any quilt (I spray baste) and quilted VERY simply, adding straight lines to the borders and just a few randomly placed straight lines in the flower blocks.

I used my BRAND NEW walking foot (happy birthday, to me!) on this and what a difference! WOW!

I also machine stitched the binding, which I never do on a full-on quilt, but with the walking foot and crisp binding edges, I stitched in the ditch and you cannot really see the stitching from it on the front of the table runner. 

Here it is! Finished and ready for the washer. I love to wash anything I quilt right away because it brings out the stitching and gives it that wrinkly, old-quilt look that I love.